So We Finally Got to the Library

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

In town here there is a fabulous library that we hadn't gotten around to visiting yet (!) and I have absolutely no excuses as to why except for that we have been busy.

Now that we have seen it first hand in all of it's glory I am going to try to make it a weekly venue for us. The children's section there is VERY impressive as is the building in general. There seems to be quite a few programs available to patrons as well.



The kids got a bunch of great books out that fuel their obsession with Ancient Egypt and Cleopatra. They have been very interested in the topic ever since we discovered this site some three years ago. This did not surprise me at all as I was always captivated with the hieroglyphics and other imagery that goes with the Egyptian theme. What does surprise me is that the kids both seem to be fascinated with the gory details of the mummification process, which is very nicely illustrated on their favorite site and now they have a dozen books to study it even more.

We also borrowed the french version of this book originally written by Marianne Berkes and illustrated by Jeanette Canyon. I was amazed at the excellent work; the pictures are vibrant and beautiful. I had no idea that polymer clay could be taken to such a level of artistry. Each page surprises as you see something new every time you read it. I highly recommend it. Check out the cover page here for a sample (all images are copywrited) and the review.

Looking Forward to a Night Out.

Monday, January 28, 2008


And it is a family friendly event so we can all go and have some fun.
Some friends are playing on stage as they have recently formed a band.

I am sooo looking forward to the event on Friday. It is called "The Cake Walk" and it should be very interesting.

The Cult of Etsy

Friday, January 25, 2008

So I have been looking at Etsy more and more lately and the more I do, the more I have questions, so many questions.

What is it about Etsy? Is it a cult? Some crazy church of craft worship site? It certainly has a very cult like following. The phenomenon of Etsy has been quite an interesting thing indeed. There are oodles of site that are off-shoot fansites of Etsy and all its glory. No shortage of free publicity in that respect.

Now, I knew that there were "tens of thousands" of shops on Etsy. But by that tens of thousands I thought there were maybe 25 or 30 thousand of them. Recently I did a search and noticed that the estimated number of sites shows while the search is working. That magic number was 112,000.

Did you get that?
ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE thousand!
Really, it's no wonder that only a handful of people look at my shop, what with some hundred-eleven-thousand-nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine other shops to lure them away from my wares. That is a LOT of competition and I really haven't figured out exactly how to use the PR tools to their fullest potential on Etsy so it makes me wonder if it is all worth it.

I suppose only time will tell.

Some Things in the Works

Thursday, January 24, 2008

So I really have been sewing. Here is proof;

Close-up of coasters in hemp.




Tissue pocket and small bookmark.



At the right you can also see the shops that have some of my lovely wares in them; I invite you to go have a look. The coasters are in my Tum Tum Tree Designs online shop and the tissue pockets can be found in my Etsy shop.

I will have many more things in the accessories department in the next few weeks also as I picked up my fabulous hemp fabric(100%!)in new spring colours. It was quite an ordeal doing the importing from my new location in the Okanagan, but more on that another time. I am very excited about what is in the works so stay tuned.

Cool Tool for Blogging

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

I found this excellent webpage with tools for writing little bits of HTML code in posts. This allows me to look like a superstar pro blogger. Check it out here. You too can look like a pro blogger!

Some Hand Made Gifts

Thursday, January 17, 2008

I never got around to posting the pics of a few of the gifts I made for people this holiday season so here we are;


Tman's pillow, bookmark and tissue pocket in "fiery" pattern as requested.



Tink pillow and cute bookmark for my daughter.
(Sorry for the crummy photos with really bad lighting, I was trying to do this without getting caught on the eve of Santa's visit.

Resolutions.....Better Late than Never

Monday, January 14, 2008

So I hadn't really thought much about the resolution thing this year. I have the usual stand-by ones that most people can generally identify with;

  • Eat Healthier (My every year aspiration)
  • Exercise More (as in more than the run to get the kids to school on time!)
  • Lose Weight (yes, that 25 pounds that keeps stalking me is in my sights now)
These are the personal ones that I will try to keep on track in some manageable way (again).
There is one more though that I would like to draw special attention to;

I had no idea how bad the big corporations were in their "turn a blind eye" to slave labour practices until this Treehugger post put it into perspective for me. The post really brought a point home to me that we really do not know what goes into many of the products we purchase.

Now it is going to be very challenging for me to not eat chocolate at all so I will have to find some alternatives to the usual mass produced stuff. If I ever get to the mall here in town I will have to check into the Ten Thousand Villages shop and see what they have to offer.

Back to School Tomorrow

Sunday, January 06, 2008

So school is starting up again tomorrow and I think everyone is happy about that. As you can see the kids all had fun on their visit here but the "horsing around" has been taken to a new level.


This is a photo of my little guy actually jumping over his big sis - yes he's in mid air! The acrobatics were getting quite creative when I took this pic so I had to put an end to them soon after. (Yes it's all fun until someone looses an eye as they say!)

So our lovely guests, two of the three half-siblings my kids have are back on their way home to the coast today. I think they enjoyed the visit, though they are probably missing their video games and cable TV shows at this point and will be happy to be back. You can only play so many games of hide-an-go-seek, right?

We Went Skiing Today

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Since the step-kids are here we decided to take advantage of all the snow and headed up to the local ski hill to do some ski runs. Easier said than done.

My kids have NEVER strapped on the skis before and I can tell you that I really had a challenging day pushing them up the baby hill and getting them to try it out. They were keen and all but it is just a new sensation to them so there was definitely some instruction going on and it is really hard to give a demo when you are not on skis yourself.

I am very thankful for the help of my Dad who was great. All in all a tiresome day and no pics because I didn't want to have anything happen to my camera by accident.

R-Mo did a great job with his snowboard though and so did L on the sticks. They pretty much just went off and did their own thing while me and Pops were busy with my littles which was also great.