Fill In The Blank Friday

Fill in the blank time! Today's blanks were inspired by Fern's first plane ride! So head over to Lauren's blog and talk about your firsts! 

1.  My first memory is     from when I was 3. My sister was just a baby and was laying on the floor. I did something to her to make her cry and I heard my mom in the other room. I didn't want to get in trouble so I made a funny face and my sister laughed. It's a weird first memory. 

2.  My first love was  my husband.I didn't have a whole lot of super serious relationships before him. None where I thought I was in love anyways. 

3.  My very first favorite color was    blue. It's been my favorite for a long time. 

4. The first time I really felt like a "grown-up" was when    I moved to Saskatchewan for college. I was 17 hours from home and didn't know anyone. I moved to Ontario that summer and felt very grown up. 

5. The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is  open my eyes and seeing a purring cat in my face. Then I get up and grab a cup of coffee and enjoy it while I let the dogs outside. 

6. The first CD (cassette tape, record, etc...) I ever bought was   DC Talk? 

7.  My first car was a 1979 toyota tercel it was so loud you had to yell just to talk to the passanger and it next to no heat in the winter. I had a different car before I got my license. I used it to bomb around on the farm, but it died before I got my drivers.  The tercel was my first car I insured and drove around town.  Funny story about it... it had manual steering (so old school) for those who don't know, that means the steering is a lot tougher. We had just had a terrible storm the night before and the roads were really bad as the ploughs hadn't been out yet.  I was quickly driving to the tire shop to get my tire tightened minutes before my shift at work. The steering was particularly hard that morning but I just thought it was because the roads were so bad. I drive as fast as I could to the tire shop as I was almost late for work.  
I get there and say "I need..." the guy interrupts me and says "Oh it's clear what you need!"

 I say "Really? didn't know it'd be that clear from inside." He looks at me funny and says "Let's go outside." 

We get out there and I see this smoke coming from my tire area. I had gotten a flat and drove on it highway speed for 15 minutes. There wasn't much of the tire left and there was a bunch of smoke pouring out.  Opps! I've been paranoid about flats ever since!


Happy Weekend Everyone!

The Day The Bear Came To Visit

Did you read my post on Monday about enjoying the moment? Well yesterday I discovered someone else in the neighborhood who is enjoying the area.

This big guy is back! From the area that we live it is expected that we'll come across bears. He's roaming the neighborhood looking for crabapple trees. 

He's eyeing ours up. We had asked the landlords about getting rid of them two weeks ago but they wanted to pick a bunch first. They still haven't picked them and so away they go. As soon as the bear realizes they are gone, he'll move on to somewhere else. But until then he'll keep doing his rounds. 

He's been around for the past two days. Two times yesterday I was outside with the dogs and turned around and he was right there slowly sauntering through our yard or already in the garden. He seems to know we're not going to harm him as he just sits there and watches us. He's not acting threatened, but more annoyed that we won't let him near the tree. He looks so massive and powerful! There is something incredible about watching this creature wandering up and down the neighbors' driveways just doing what comes natural to him. Hopefully everyone removes their apples soon and he can move on safely. 

Enjoying The Moment

Some days when Jon's at work the house seems too quiet. So I turn on some background noise like the tv or online radio stations. Just something. But this morning when I returned from our walk I sat outside on the deck and just enjoyed the quiet.

It's not actually quiet. The birds are chatting to each other from across the yard. There's a squirrel going off about something. A sad lone goose is calling out for his gaggle. And a dog a few houses down is warning everyone of something; probably one of the bears that frequent our neighbourhood. 

  

But this is a good quiet; a calming quiet. For a few minutes I'll enjoy the sounds as I sip my coffee and appreciate the warm sun; probably one of the last of it before too long. I hate to even be typing this and not taking in each moment to the fullest. So I'll take an hour then back inside I go. But perhaps I'll sneak out again later. 

Lately...

I think I somehow subconsciously convinced myself that blogging is narcistic. Don't get me wrong; when YOU blog it's not. But somehow when I blog it is. Everything I think about blogging seems so narcissistic.  Ergo... no posts.

So this is me saying screw it! I'm blogging.

I've been working on building up stock for a craft fair in November. It's like starting all over again with items! My goal is 150 things. I figure if I start now, it won't be so stressful in November.

My in-laws are in town right now. Typically this is the time I would be complaining about how they're always around and cramping my style. But instead I'll tell you they don't like me and we've hardly seen them.

I reached 300 sales in my shop today! Every sale makes me just as happy as the first one! I'm really bad at handing out business cards in person. Usually I send my packages to mail out with Jon, but yesterday I sent a couple myself. The lady at the post office recognized the packages and handwriting so I worked up the nerve and offered a business card. Today when Jon was mailing packages she said she had the card by her computer and was excited to check out my shop tonight.


As sad as I am to see the end of summer I'm reminding myself of my love of fall. The leaves have just started changing and coloring the ground.

It's the week-end again. I don't know where the week went. The house is clean so I plan to make the most of the week-end. Whatever that may be.

Purple Rain.... Purple Rain

This evening we had a small thunderstorm so I headed out with my camera to see if I could get some cool photos. I had yet to take any photos with this camera in the dark so I was hoping to figure that out a bit.

  

It was quite cloudy and there wasn't really lightning bolts so I couldn't get any cool photos of actual lightning. But I thought what they did to the clouds looked pretty cool.

 

So you know you're a huge Golden Girls fan when one of the first things that comes to mind is the clip that starts at 0:57 of this video

 

I got a little drenched in the rain, but I feel it was worth it! 

Picking Harvest And Canning

One of my favorite things about this time of year is harvest! Work all summer trying to keep the garden alive and then get to enjoy it come fall! This year we seem determined to fill our freezers and cold room. So far we have strawberry/rhubarb jam, saskatoon jam, apple butter, and apple sauce ready for winter. In the freezers we've got bags and bags of saskatoons, rhubarb, strawberries, and spinach frozen.

The past couple weeks it feels liked we've been doing a lot of picking! Starting with raspberries...

We picked these two ice cream buckets plus another one we froze the week before. 

Wild blueberries

   

Our tree is SO full right of apples right now! Can't hardly tell we've been picking! 

  

   

  

These babies are going to make a nice batch of marinara this weekend. 

  

  

I can't wait to try these! They have to cure for two months first! 

We're hoping to get a few more things processed and canned before winter!

Two Awards!

Jessie from Young Georgia Love has nominated me for two awards the other day! Thanks Jessie! Way to make a girl feel special!

For the Versatile Blogger Award, I have to list 7 random facts about myself and nominate 15 other bloggers. The Liebster requires me to answer 11 questions of Katrice's, list another 11 facts, link to 11 bloggers with under 200 followers, and ask them 11 questions.


Versatile 7 Random Facts:
1. I brush my teeth my eyes closed
2. I whistle sideways
3. In stores/restaurants/places I go often, I always use the same bathroom stall. 
4. I always wash my hands after touching plastic garbage bags, even if they are new from the box. 
5. I always brush my hair starting on the right side and work my way to left. 
6. I love fresh peas
7. I own quite a few dark blue hoodies. they all look pretty similar. 

Liebster 11 Random Facts:
1. I like 80's rock music
2. I don't like brownies
3. I don't eat "sugared" cereal 
4. My fingers are double jointed
5. I went wild blueberry picking yesterday
6. I am 98% coffee
7. I always mute commercials
8. I love to laugh
9. A few minutes ago I walked into a wall... backwards
10. My cat is sleeping on a blanket against my feet. 
11. alllmost didn't make it to 11! 



Jessie's Questions

1. You're walking down the street and you see a penny tales-side up. What do you do? leave it. I kinda have a thing about street germs. 

2. If you could live anywhere, where would it be? somewhere beautiful, quiet, semi-remote. 

3. Are you a fan of elephants? sure why not. elephants in captivity make me sad.

4. What's your favorite inside joke with a loved one? hmm... we have so many. 

5. Which season do you prefer? In the fall I'm completely in love with it. But in spring I'm completely in love with it! So I have two! 

6. Was a high school the time of your life or just the opposite for you? high school was tough not so much at school but homelife. so I'm not sure I would say it was the time of my life. I've had a great time the past 10 years since high school!

7. If you could take back one thing you'd ever done, what would it be? I try to live my life with no regrets. I try to think carefully about my actions so I don't make any regrets and accept things that happen as a life lesson.

8. If you met one celebrity, who would it be? Betty White. enough said. I think I would just die. 

9. What would the title of a book about your life be? A Fly In My Coffee?

10. Are you a cat person or a dog person? Or an iguana person? A dog person but since getting our cat I've been a little converted. 

11. If you had to live inside one book, which would you choose? tough question. I don't know!

My Questions:

1. If money is no option... what would you be/do?

2. What's your dream vacation?

3. What's your guilty pleasure show?

4. What's one of your funniest or most embarrassing moments?

5. What is your favorite movie?

6. If you were to host a game night and invited celebrities which 3 would you invite?

7. What trend can you just not get onboard with?

8. What song do you currently play on repeat?

9. Coffee or Tea?

10. When do you start your christmas shopping?

So, I never know who to award these to. So if you're reading this... I pick you!! Comment on here and let me know you did it so I can read your answers! Thanks again Jessie for the awards!

Stationary Love

Remember when I was all gushing about the first box I received from a monthly subscription? Well this is going to be much the same! I received my August It's Paper Dear box and I'm in love. My stationary loving heart beats wildly when I see the box in my mail slot! It's all I can do to not open it right there.

Ahh! the sight of these patterns makes me happy

Every month she has wonderful sponsors who add goodies to the boxes! 

There were more things but those were a few of my favorite things in the box. If you want to sign up for one you can find them in her shop Darling Dear but you better go fast! Each month runs out fast! 

Not The End Just The Beginning

I feel like this photo appropriately suits my thoughts lately.
The past few weeks there's felt like a running theme; The End.
The end of many things has been happening. Not all that I'll mention on here but I'll mention a few examples.

This picture is from several years ago but I still love it just the same. My grandma died just over a week ago. She had dementia for a while so I had some time to prepare myself a little, but it's never easy when a grandparent dies.


The weather hasn't been all that amazing lately so I feel a little sadness for the end of summer. I'm not ready for it to end yet. I would like to enjoy it a bit longer.

I've also been very aware lately that this time next year we'll have moved and be living somewhere else.  We've enjoyed living here and the anxiousness of not knowing what's next is uncomfortable at times. But exciting at the same time.


So although it feels like there's a lot of chapters being closed right now, I'm reminded of the excitement of a new book. Be it literature, journal, whatever. The anticipation that nothing is really the end, (to insert a cliche...) it's just the beginning of something new.