WELCOME TO BLOGABELLA

it’s a celebration in da BELLA’s house!   My little teeny tiny baby is turning 7 today.. Can you believe it?? 7!  SEVEN.. seven… SeVeN… s-e-v-e-n.

Is she not GORGEOUS?  LOL.. yes I know I am her mother but seriously 🙂

I wanted to wish my dear “FREE SPIRIT” a wonderful amazing phenomenal birthday.  She is kind and sweet and understands the meaning of family and how to treat other people.. PLEASE DON’T CHANGE WHEN YOU ARE 13 little girl..LOL..  She is funny and edgy.. and really marches to the beat of her own drum.. and I admire that about her.

She can also be a little goofy

so I had to hijack bellarific friday to wish her a wonderful and happy 7th birthday and hope all her dreams come true

mwah

see you tomorrow!

Em

So on top of getting this amazing stuff (which I actually started hyperventilating and drooling over).. we are having a class here so I tried to control my emotions but really didn’t.. LOL

Here are some pictures of what goes on here when THE DOL (Christine Dol) teaches a class…

SO MUCH FUN!!  if you are local.. or if you wanna travel..LOL.. please come and visit k?  promise?

MWAHHHHH

here are some peeks and stay TOONED as I will be loading the computer with some goodies too!

Here are pics Denabella sent to torture ME (I was home with a migraine today) and YOU.. bwahahahaha

Mwah mwah mwah

Em

Hiya sistahs!

Hope you had a great weekend with lots of creative time and lots of kidlet time celebrating mother’s day.  We had an eventful weekend.. but yesterday was THE BEST and I will tell you why… you ready? (it’s a long one)

Every year I decide that I need to start gardening.  In our last house I had ZERO motivation as we had a “walkout” balcony and had to drag ourselves through the basement to get out to the yard.  needless to say, we never went to the back.

In this lovely house we are now in, we have a beautiful little backyard and I vowed that I would make it BEAUTIFULLER.  So my family decided to take me to Home Depot to pick out some stuff.  Please keep in mind  that I have ABSOLUTELY no green thumb nor a talent to make plants grow.  In fact, I kill them.  EVERY SINGLE YEAR.  Every year, I vow to grow an herb garden.. easy enough right?  not for da BELLA.. they are dead within a week and my kids and husband all remind me of that and laugh their heads off.  NICE AY?

But this year I was DETERMINED.  I must mention at this point that we have TONS of weeds in our garden and I wanted to get rid of them.  PRONTO.  So last week I started pulling them.. the leaves came out but I was never able to get to the root.. and they were EVERYWHERE and they HURT ME with their prickly leaves.. grrrr.  So yesterday Ryan bought a weed puller thingy to try to get them out.  Keep in mind that my whole life I was surrounded by flowers.. my mother is an amazing gardener and you can’t even speak to her on her gardening days because she is so absorbed.  I never understood it, to be honest.  So yesterday I called her and asked her what to do for weeds.  She went into this gardener’s jargon on and on and on .. and all I got from the conversation was Miracle Gro, Mulch and cedar chips… so I kept repeating these 3 things in my head until we got to the store.

Once we were there, we bought all of our tools.. flowers, urns (which I plant every year and they die in 22 seconds).. we chose them all carefully.. bought a watering can, a hose.. you get the idea.  So while Tyler was playing hockey, Jayden and I would plant.

We got home, we poured the dirt into the urns, we planted, we watered and we both felt exhilarated.. really. to use your two hands and anticipate something growing that you planted!  Phenom! (unless I manage to kill these also)… I kinda appreciated this gardening thing… like I can do this.. I’m cool.. I think I have a green thumb!  So excited..

here is one of the urns I planted.. the other one is identical 🙂  The urn is kinda cool.. has a wickery look to it..

we had a GREAT time…

And then.  I spotted the WEAPON

yes this was the weeding tool that Ryan just left on the ground and went to take Tyler to hockey practice.  I look at Jayden and I asked if Ryan tried to use the tool.  She admitted that he did and he didn’t understand how to use it so just threw it down in exasperation and left..LOL.  So I decided to pick it up.  And look at the long part of the tool and sure enough I saw directions with pictures on how to use it.  So I look to the left.. I look to the right.. and I shove that baby into the ground on top of the weed and pulled it all out INCLUDING THE ROOT.  It was the most beeyootiful sight.  I couldn’t believe I did it!!  Now keep in mind, that i didn’t know that there was a simple knob to push down to release the weed and clean the blades.. so I kept bending down to clean it up.. but no matter… I WAS OBSESSED.

Jayden was calling my name.. I HEARD NOTHING.  I became the WEED KILLER.  I was PUSHING that baby into every weed I saw..I was SWEATING like a pig.. and got cramps… actually I have a great description of my experience.. from an email I wrote my mother last night.  Keep in mind, I had to take some content out as it was too explicit for my audience but I think you can kinda figure it out 🙂

Here is the email to my mom.. actually  I sent her a picture of my plant.. and this is what the response was..

“The urns are beautiful. I really like them.  The red leafy plant is

> called coleus. It does well in the sun. Can also go very big in the

> ground, maybe the urn will contain its size. The pansies need sun , I

> also planted today the whole day. I bought two large baskets of peach

> begonias and in the ground I got tuberous  begonias which come in

> brilliant colours, need sun and shade. Geraniums do well in urns,they

> are sturdy and now I found white and red hybrids. You will need to get

> “miracle grow”. Good luck with planting and water! WATER! WATER!!!

Pretty innocent right?

OK here was my email after I did all my weeding and planting

MY EMAIL TO MY MOTHER

Yes I got miracle grow potting soil and the additive.  I also bought the weed puller which Ryan couldn’t figure out and he left.  After Jayden and I planted, I took the weed thingamajig and actually read the sticker with PiCTUREs on it and became dangerous.  There was nothing more satisfying than pulling out a root the size of my arse..  my house…. The feeling is equivalent to popping a zit, peeling glue off your hands or eating a gigantic cookie without the fear of weight gain.

By the time I pulled 3 weeds, I was hyperventilating,  sweating, and almost passed out due to dehydration from the extreme exercise.  I had to take a break.  I then resumed this exercise and Ryan showed me that I didn’t have to keel over and pick the weed out of the knives.  He simply showed me to pull the handle and out dropped the Ginormous root!  I then started The murder scene again and without realizing that all my sweet innocent neighbors were out, I let out “inappropriate”  moans every time I pulled those ^&*&^%  from the earth.  Ryan had to shush me whilst sweating and shoving that thing back into the land of milk and honey.  It was pure bliss.

I now  have a garden that literally looks like 6,567,998 squirrels and raccoons have destroyed it, but I , the ignorant gardner, will have a night of sweet dreams, sore muscles and thoughts of a long root being pulled out of the ground *sigh*… I now “get it”

 Ps.  All the plants I potted were designated as partial shaded plants.  I’m very hesitant to put the mulch because that will remove me from my job as the weed whacker Hmph

Here is my mother’s response:

I totally share the sentiment. I had such a good belly laugh because it took me 2 years and 3 engineers to figure out this wonderful tool. I now hide it in the corner of the garage and you can appreciate how much I love you if I wanted to very CAREFULLY wrap it into pink tissue after lovingly cleaning it as if it was a very expensive object, and lend it to YOU  my favourite daughter .Happy gardening and I leave you with the following thought  which one day, many years from now you will share with your daughter:

MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE  WALL

  I BECAME MY

MOTHER ,AFTER  ALL!   (for starters, gardening)

Yes, that is the type of relationship we have.. but I thought that captured the event pretty well..LOL

what I didn’t include was that I called myself  a WEEDBUSTER, held the tool pointing like a gun and started humming the tune to ghostbusters.. LOL

“I ain’t afraid of no WEED” (ok that sounds really bad)..LOL

So that was my event yesterday..

Now for AJ monday!  Sorry for digressing..

now for da sistahood

I hope you enjoyed my jaunt and my story..LOL.. Honestly.. I think it is one of the funniest things ever but you may just have needed to “be there” to appreciate 🙂

Next year’s AJ theme— grab stuff that is on your table and just stick it down in your journal… scraps.. papers.. bills receipts.. stamps (to stamp).. basically use what is out in front of you and let’s see what happens shall we?

Don’t forget our sketch for Bellarific friday this week

Mwah to da sistahs who LOVE to PULL da WEEDIES and who ALSO love to Art journal 🙂

mwah mwah mwah

oh and here is a song that I LOOOOVE and blast out loud and know all the words to.. I just heard it in the car today and thought I would share… I think it may now be my gardening song :).. enjoy and sing at the top of your lungies!
 

Em

and sunny..  and I’m HAPPPPPPYYYYYYY!!

So let’s talk about some vouchahs for some winnahs shall we? k here we go!

Winnah for COMMENTAYTIN’  ($10 in BELLA BUCKS ) goes to…

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

18-Lisa T you win $10!  please email me and I will send you your voucher!

Timestamp: 2012-05-11 16:22:14 UTC

Now for a CONTRIBUTIN’ winnah!  ($20 in bella bucks) goes to

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

3-Cindy you win!! please email me and I will send you $20 in Bella Bucks

Timestamp: 2012-05-11 16:25:00 UTC

I have some great news sistahs!!  We have a new BABEROONI!!  I have been keeping this a secret for a little while and I am THRILLED to announce her FINALLY!!

Not sure if you have seen her blog (but maybe you did.. I hope you did because you will be FLOORED)..

Here name is Kathy (Katarina) Menzes.. and she is DEEVINE

here is her blog.. you will loveY her

Our theme this week is to STITCH!  either faux or real 🙂

Here we go Let’s see what the baberoonis were up to shall we?

KATARINABELLA /KATHYBELLA? (not sure.. please give input).. used RAMONA’S CAKE

Cathabella used UPTOWN GIRL POSH

Danabella used a stamp from SUMMER DAYS

Ebrubella used UPTOWN GIRL CLAUDIA LOVES CANDY

Lindabella used FLYNN’S BERRY HAPPY DAY

Natasha used FLOWER GARDEN

Paulabella used FLYNN NEEDS A CUPCAKE

Paulineabella used LULU’S POT OF ORCHIDS

dRegabella used EM’S MIXED MEDIA FLOWERS.. and she embroidered!

Yes I decided to participate this week!  and guess what i did? LOL.. a 4*4 collage that I stuck into my art journal 🙂

used lots of stampies here.. Used our HOLEY SCALLOPY BORDER,  TRIPLE TREE by KETTO, the RED ARROW from our GRUNGY SET #!, YOUR BOOK IS DUE for texture in the bottom right… YUMMMMM

And now for DA SISTAHOOD!  (very small turnout this week but it’s okkkkk – said to provoke guilt from da sistahood)

LOOOVE those cards!

Don’t forget to place a comment to be eligible to win $10 in Bella bucks!

Next week’s theme is a sketch!

If you contribute, you can win $20 in buckeroonis!

Mwah to da sistahs who lovey da bellarific friday!

Hiya sistahs!

Well I have been hibernating and creating and trying to make some of da stampies come to life.. I have also been working with 2 FABBY DABBY DEELISH new artists who will blow your socks off.  I am hoping to have some images for our impending release… bwahahahaha…. it’ll shock ya.

Ok so today is a blechy day.. cloudy.. sad…just yuck.  I ran out to surprise my kidlets with a Mcdonalds lunch at school.. and now I am back, I took a picture of my collage and just feeling inspired.

In this collage I used some patterned paper (my mind’s eye) which we are sold out of.. and the collage was inspired by the little stamp you see in there.. I dunno.  Something told me I had to use it..LOL.. It is Claudine’s little mailbox featured in her NEIGHBORHOOD set..  it’s such a little part of the set but I dunno.. it called my name.  I just love it.  I also used our SOLID FUNKY DANDELION stamp.  I just love that stamp.. I used it here as tree.. a lollipopish type of tree.. anyone see the LORAX?  I loved those trees..

I also typed on my new OLLLLLD typewriter the word “hoping” on a tag and sewed all over the place leaving the threads exposed…  I guess it’s how i feel sometimes?  exposed… I am always hoping .. and that little tiny mailbox is how it all started.  When I collage, I really like to tell a story.. or reflect a little piece of me in there…  I also used crayons and a big fat graphite pencil to make my marks.. and VOILA.  a piece of me on a teeny canvas.. (Uch I wish the WHOLE me would fit on that canvas..LOL!)

Is there a particular image that inspires you these days?  birdcages? animals? retro ?  what inspires you?

Hope you are having a creative day

mwah mwah mwah

Em