I am bi-bolar and right now I am going into a high swing.  I am so thankful that I have a good doctor.  I suffered for many years before I found this terrific Psyhiatrist.  As a child I was told I was crazy and I believed it. I never had friends, if I did, they never lasted for very long.  Even my family didn’t much like having me around.    It was only in the past twenty years that I finally recieved a diagnosis.  I had been told I was spoiled, selfish, inmature, bushed(whatever that meant), clinical depression, and so many others that I couldn’t even be bothered to try to remember.

I had been told that I didn’t know how I felt or what I thought because I wasn’t trained in the field of Psychiatry.  I have been given shock treatments in the past while in a mental institution because I complained too many times during a day about how I was feeling.  In those days they didn’t put you to sleep for those treatments and I remember hearing someone screaming  and then later coming to the realization that it was me.

Yes, today I am so thankful for my pyschiatrist.  He takes time to talk with me.  He allows me to have my feelings and understands that I yes, I know how I feel and what I think.   He also knows that asking me if I feel suicidal is one of the most stupid questions a Doctor ever asks a patient.  I mean really!!!!!!!  If a person is truelly suicidal are they going to tell someone whose first goal would be to stop them?  Give me a break!    However,  thanks to this doctor and his kind ways, I have not been suicidal in over 5 years because no matter how bad things get, he will help me through them.  I  for the first time in over 50 years have total faith in a doctor.

Today he is altering my medications, since I always have freaky reactions to medications, I am also off work for the next week.  I am not happy about that though because it seems lately that the only time off I get is when I am not gonna be able to scrap anyway.

I am doing a bit of rambling here I think, my mind gets a little screwed up and I tend to do that when my “nerves” go.    I will be fine though I have the best doctor in Canada on my team and I know my online scrapping buds are pullin for me

How neglectful I have been to be sure. I can’t believe it has been so long since I posted. I shake my head in shame. Lets see what or who can I blame it all on, for of course I certainly can’t take all that on my own poor wee self.

I have moved into a little larger house since we last had the chance to “chat”, that has taken quite a bit of my time. Don’t you just love moving? Why that is when all your friends promise they will be there to help but on the big, everyone of them suddenly get sick or called out of town you know hahaha. Also that is when you finally decide to toss that ugly old pitcher that have hung on to for ten years and haven’t used in about as long and know you will never use again but the very first week after you toss it, you find that you need it desperately! It is also the time when everything that can go wrong will go wrong, and when you so desperately need those two days off work that the boss decides to get sick, and his wife is in another country leaving just you to work. However, I got moved despite it all.

I have also had some terrific Day trips……. been doing some nature trails hiking. Oh how I love to get out on those trails with my camera, and just nature. Fantastic, nothing can beat it. Well maybe lots of money but since I will never have that I will take nature as second best hahaha.

I have also been lucky enough to have been able to spend some time with my wonderful family too. Oh my Gosh, those grandchildren are just so adorable and no I am not one bit biased. Donald is growing into such a handsome boy, he is going to be a heartbreaker that one. Oh course being the first grand child he tends to get a little too much (if such a thing is possible) of nana’s love. Theresa is so much like her mother that I have a hard time remembering that she isn’t my daughter but my grand daughter. Therefore I am afraid that she has a very special place in my heart and gets spoiled something terrible. Isaac, well he is a little rapscallion that one. Heart of gold, liquid eyes, smiles that would melt a iron heart, deaf ears if he don’t want to hear you, an “I don’t care attitude” he would frustrate and make a saint angry, but all he would have to do is look the saint and smile and the saint would melt and that’s okay sweetie. At 5 yrs old he gets away with more stuff in one day than I got away with in a lifetime. He is loved by everyone and he knows it too LOL ( He also gets punished for more too hahaha) Daniel, well what can I say about him, he is the different one, very quiet, a loner in a sense. He can play by himself and keep himself entertained all day if need be. While in looks, he is a lot like Isaac, that is where to me the similarities end. (I don’t see them often enough to know if he is more like him in other ways or not though) Samantha is youngest and she is the Queen Bee still. To me she is another Theresa. Just starting to walk and talk and loving every bit of attention she can muster. Another Beautiful “splinter” from the Posts… us Planks love all the splinters very much.

Of course with so much nature and our little splinters, naturally we have lots of photos and you if there are photos I have been busy with scrapbooking.

Here are a few of my latest.

This is a layout of my husband and myself at the St Clair Wildlife Reserve Conservation Area. We don’t talk about that day any more than absolutely necessary, and he finds it necessary to ask me if I want to go back just about every day.

The three oldest, finally yielded to temptation, namely the old apple tree. I suspect it was because Isaac was big enough this year to start climbing and once he could climb, nothing was gonna hold him back.

A trip to Point Pelee National Park was a highlight. A beautiful park in South Western Ontario with many nature trails. On this particular trip we only did the one though and it wasn’t really a trail but the Marsh Boardwalk. A 1 km loop boardwalk through a marsh. It says it is a 45 minute walk but I think we took about 2 hours. The birds were awesome. Not to mention beavers, frogs and even turtles.

Of course we can’t forget the May 24th weekend, that would be unforgiveable

We spent a good portion of the day at our daughter’s  enjoying the best family a person could have.  Our SIL is the best in the whole world, and we are so proud to have him in our family.  He BBQed steaks, hamburgers, and goodness only knows what else he made for our dinner that night cause I sure don’t remember it all.  Then for our pleasure he put on a show of fireworks that was just pure delightful.  It is a night I shall remember for a long time.  Thanks Dan, you are a treasure

At first I wasn’t intending to do this challenge, but then after thinking it over decided to do one for my daughter. I don’t have any photos of my Mom and Dad taken together but lots of them taken at separate times, I decided to do a little photo manipulation in PSP.. it isn’t the best I have done but I was on time constraints and it will do anyway. Either way, I don’t think my DD is going to get this one after all. LOL

This Ad challenge was just what I needed. Immediately the Large simple photo was what drew me into the ad. I loved the uncluttered look of the ad. I had the exact photo in mind immediately but I had to think what I wanted to do with it. I am not normally the layout it and change it around type of scrapper. I usually take the cardstock, grab a photo, get the paper and then start sticking things down….. add til it looks right is my motto LOL.

This time though I did things somewhat differently. I looked into Jenny’s eyes and saw what I wanted… sounds silly but that is how it worked out. I wanted a lonely dreamy look.

Jenny belongs to dear friends of ours who we haven’t seen now for a long time. They used to visit us at least twice a year but now that they have grandchildren we never see them anymore so we miss seeing Jenny and them too off course LOL. They live in Illinois but visit their family in Mi and have always popped over here in Ontario for a quick visit while there but now they just can’t make their holiday quite stretch long enough LOL.

We will have to make do with photos so I wanted to make sure I have a good one of Jenny to look at and remember the fun, like the day she poked her nose under the couch and got smacked by the cat. Silly dog turned right around and did the same thing again. Dawgs just never learn their lessons LOL.

Well it wasn’t a totally wasted day, although I didn’t get a lot done. The Jays must have taken the day off today as I only had a minor headache today, not the stabbing pains of the past few days and I thank God for that. I honestly don’t think I could have taken much more of it. The butterflies in my stomach must have escaped sometime while I was sleeping and I missed seeing them, I sooo wanted to get a photo of them too. They must have been beautiful with so many of them.. after all there had to have been millions to have caused that much fluttering I think.

I completed a layout today that I started on Friday night. After I lost my darling Nikki, my best friend immediately bought me another kitten to replace her. Missi, (my husband named her) was only in the house maybe two days before she was no longer mine.. traitor that she was, she went to him, and stuck to him like glue. She has been his “little girl” ever since. Normally, where ever he is, that is where you will find her. So I have started to do layouts to show her growing up with her daddy. I have titled this one ” Love Is”

I decided to try my hand at this pop out card. I loved it the minute I first saw it. I had assumed it would be hard to make but in reallity it is really easy. Of course the first one was a bit time consuming because I didn’t have the directions so it was a bit hit and miss. But now that I know what I am doing it will be easy and so much faster to make them. I think they are beautiful personally and will surely be making more of them. I think I will be making the cutouts larger on the next ones though LOL

Here is the front of the card:

here is the inside of the card:

and here it is looking down from the top:

I can see these being used for any occassion.

I also finished my LO for the contest at Savvy n Sassy for the February contest there. So I feel that I have accomplished something.

Today was an important milestone for me, we celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary. We have had our ups and downs needless to say, and like any normal couple we have had our share of fights. There was one thing we settled on though, we would never go to bed angry with each other. Every book as two covers, each may or may not give a true glimpse at the real story inside.. you have to put the covers together and read the book to find out what it says.

We also decided from day one that we were married for keeps, and not just until we had a few differences. That we would work anything out that came between us. After all, we were married by the authority of God and the Bible says that what God hath joined together, let not man put assunder. We both believe that to be the word of God so we abide by it.

I love my husband very much and would not be able to live without him. I know he loves me too. We just have our own particular little quirks that others at times don’t seem to understand. We have this habit of joking about everything and each other… I remember one day while we were shopping and the clerk asked my husband if he would like a bag, he replied no thanks, I brought her with me. The other’s in the store were shocked and angry with him, but I just thought it was so funny and so quick thinking. We do it to each other all the time.

It has pretty much become a habit to see who can come up with funniest and the quickest retort about everything that happens especially the bad stuff. I believe it was this ability that helped the most when my husband suffered through the series of strokes. When he came back from the MRI, even though he could barely make himself understood, and was throwing up with every third or fourth word.. his first words to our daughter and myself with what we came to know as his “after stroke smile” was ” how do they expect anyone to sleep through all that whirrrrrrrr whirrrrrrrrr thump thump thumping?”"” “all I got in there was whirrrrrrrr whirrrrrrr thump thump whirrrrrr whirrrrrrr thump thump I wanted to roll over but I couldn’t, noisy thing, don’t think we will bother buying one of those”. I knew then that if there was any way for him to survive, he would. He always greeted us with a sarcastic joke.

I love him so much, and I look forward to the next 34 years together.

Okay, so we had to use a quote or all four of them on a layout! Not a bad challenge, one would think…… yeah well sure if you are into mushy stuff! So,”Jackie me girl,” I seys to meself, ” time ta get a bit mushy.” I can get just as mushy as the rest of them. I have learned over the years it just don’t pay off that’s all hahaha. Anyway, I donned my mush hat, and I went to work. Yep, I still had it in me. I primed up the printer first, opened up some purdy fonts and went to work in the ole word processor thingy… by dem words turned out mighty fine. Even did some lovely lil hearts on some of them, to show just how mush mush mushy I could get.

Well everyone knows that mush includes flowers, and since the snow drifted down this week covering all my lovelies, I just went to work and hand cut some fer me darling.. out of paper.. well more of a cardstock actually. (hope he likes them.. sure took me a long time). Tied on some bits of ribbon( okay so I stapled it.. it was some of them purdy staples that he likes to borrey from me all the time)… I even wrote some mushy stuff about love and kisses if you please!

If that ain’t enough mush, then I don’t know what will please ya!

For Star Challenge #2 we have been told to use up scraps and this is the list of requirements:

3 different colours of cardstock 1 point
2 different printed papers 1 point
3 or more metal embellishments, must all be different 1 point
complete on time 1 point
blog it and link back 1 point 

I have used Black, grey and white cardstock, I have used three different Chatterbox papers to create the pinwheels and their matching “sticky notes”.  For the metal embellishments I have actually used five different ones.  Flower brads in the centers of the pinwheels, metal paperclips for the sticky notes, a D - charm, metalic photo-corners, and metalic laugh element in the lower right of the photo.

This is my grandson climbing the walls.. I think it is better when they are climbing them than when they are driving us “up the walls”.

We have been challenged to blog about any crafts we do so here goes.

I didn’t have any hobbies at all but when we moved to Labrador City and I found I had the choice of layering on several pairs of woolies, a couple pairs of pants, then adding a ski suit, oh yeah, don’t forget finding a hat, scarf, some warm mittens…… all this time my DD was sweltering in the same amount of clothing while waiting for me, or vice versa…… I decided to make one shopping expedition. To a craft shop! Crochet cotton, yarns or various colours and hues, beads, a complete set of Artex paints, crochet hooks and knitting needles of every size and variety, patterns for almost everything.. well after all, I had no idea what I could or could not do, so I had to be prepared. I must say, I am not sure if that gal was normally that helpful or if it was because I practically bought her store but she made sure I knew how to knit one, purl one, and do all the basic stitches before I left. The next stop was to purchase a sewing machine, fabric and patterns…..oh yeah I was going to be well prepared for this winter, and nothing was going to stop me.

When I got home and after reading through all the instructions. (I have always set myself one basic rule, I am not allowed to play with any new toys until I have thoroughly read all the instructions). I got all the sewing machine all set up and the I played a game to see which I would start with. I play games with everything :).

Crocheting came first….. well what do you know… it came easily, and it was fun to do. Okay, won’t bore you with details, I still crochet occasionally, but not very much. The last things I crocheted were decorations for my christmas tree along with a complete set for my DD’s tree, my sister’s and my niece’s trees as well. Here is a piccy of two of my favorites.

Well after the crocheting came the sewing. At first I had a bit of trouble understanding the directions but that didn’t pose a lot of problems, I just phoned my sister who is a pro. So I started to make my clothing and my DDs as well. It wasn’t long before I ran into a wonderful gent from Quebec who owned a fabric center and had visions of being a designer. He needed someone to sew up his designs for him. I explained to him that I was just learning to sew and was somewhat worried since if I spoiled the fabric instead of managing to get the design the way he wanted it, then I would be out the money and he wouldn’t have his design.. he told me not to worry about that, he would supply as much fabric as I needed til I got it right… no cost to me. Well man I had fun with that. When he had a new design, he would bring me bolts of fabric, lace.. whatever he thought I would need to “run” it up for him and told me to keep whatever was left!
Thus I was really launched into sewing. I had “sew” much fun. (pun intended) I would never wear the clothing he designed but I must say, I am sure he made his mark with someone. Here is a photo of some of the Rompers and matching bonnets I made recently for my grand daughter.

Next I tried my hand at knitting, once again I found it came easily and I knit several sweaters, hats, scarves, dozens of mittens, socks etc…….. I just found that I preferred to do other crafts and knitting was too time consuming and hard on my arms.

Next it was off to embroidery and cross-stitching…. oh yeah, now here was my chance to excell with my creativety. Using colour combinations and doing my own thing so to speak. However it is to hard on my poor fingers, so I don’t it often. I have done a couple of quilts but that is all.
Here is one I did to go in my bedroom. I have yellow roses painted around my bedroom and I daubbed the same colours from the roses on a small piece of board and took it with me to the store to match the colours exactly to the floss, because I wanted the quilt to match. HAHAHA yeah I guess I am a bit anal there but you see Missi approved and that was important.

Here is a quilt I made for my best friend, this was a joint effort between myself and her DH, I also made the matching curtains and throw cushions, also a bedskirt. He got all the measurements for me, and got her out of the house so I could get in and remake her bed with the bedskirt and everything and get her curtains up while she was gone. It was for her birthday. Needless to say she was a itty bit surprised LOL

So yeah I guess I do have some things I can call hobbies or crafts…. I just called them ways to past the time when it was just way to frigid to get outside. LOL

Oh yeah, that Lisa thought she was gonna make it tough when she posted this challenge:

Complete a challenge using the monochromatic technique. Based on all one colour and various shades of this one colour.

your colour is to be PURPLE

you must use 80% of purple in order for your layout to count. NO OTHER COLOURS WILL BE ACCEPTED… the only ones accepted are white ,black, beige - no more than 20% of these colours.

Your pp has to be no other colours except what is here. I wont accept the layout if it has more colours on it. This is a tough one.

complete on time 1 point
use 3 different ribbons 1 point
use of rub ons on the layout 1 point
use more than 3 photos 1 point
blog and link back 1 point

Well I happen to love use Monochromatic schemes so this wasn’t a toughie for me at all LOL.