Life in the country...

I love living in the country. It was one of the best moves I ever made moving out of the city. Sure in the city there is the convenience of walking to the store, getting fast food, zipping out quick when you run out of milk and the people.....but none of that even comes close to living in the country. I've got a garden planted that is doing quite well considering the crappy soil conditions I started with and the weather this summer. We had a good supply of strawberries for the month of June and some radishes as well. We are now enjoying, peas, beans, cucumbers and my beets are ready to be pickled!!!My first tomato is just about ready to pluck off the vine as well. I was standing out looking at the garden the other night and I felt the wind (I thought) rustle my hair, but then there was a squawk. Well it turned out to be barn swallows performing some sort of air attack formation above me. They have babies in the drive shed, but it is not that close to the garden and they were zooming at my head. It was scary. I don't know if they would actually hit me or not, but I ducked every time and didn't give them a chance to find out! Here is a video of Joel, and you can see how close they get to your head! They are fast little buggers too! This is the reason they are dive bombing!! Aren't they cute? I think they alternate their seating so I think there are either 4 or 6 in the nest. Friday my sunflowers were finally out in full bloom. Check this out! Maybe that's why the birds were dive bombing me....they want me to stay away from the flowers that are gonna give them seeds soon! Have a great long weekend. Chow for now, Jacqui

Been a while...

Wow, it's been a while since I have posted. We are just so crazy busy at work, I just can't seem to find the time. And then when I go home, it is so danged hot...I just try and sit and not move. I think air conditioners are going on my Christmas list!!! Ha, not that I'll need them at Christmas...but you know what I mean. Last night we decided to watch the movie The Lincoln Lawyer. I have been wanting to watch it for a while cause well.. Matthew McConaughey...need I say more!
I really enjoyed this movie. I didn't realize it was a book - written by Michael Connelly. I might just have to have a read! I knew Matthew was in the movie, but I didn't realize all the others that were. It was a great cast. William H. Macy, Oh my gosh - remember when he was on ER...he sure didn't look like this! I love his acting though. Great, great actor.
Marisa Tomei, I really like Marisa's character in this movie. She is beautiful as ever. Remember her in My Cousin Vinny! John Leguizamo, I've always liked John - he was on ER for a stint as well, but I think my favourite character he has played was that short little fella in Moulin Rouge! Trace Adkins, How cool is this!!! I didn't know our country boy Trace was in the movie. Man oh man he is a big man! Michael Pare, I used to have the biggest crush on this guy!!!! Remember the movie Eddie and the Cruisers!!!!!
Ryan Phillippe, played a very good role as an ASS. Francis Fisher, Oh my gosh - remember her from Edge of Night!!! Josh Lucas He's always a cutie! and Bryan Cranston. It always makes me laugh to see him in a movie now.....He will always be Malcolm's dad - but with his Breaking Bad show - he has certainly broke out into different characters.
If you're looking for a movie to watch tonight....pick this one up!
Chow for now
Jacqui

Gardening....

For those of you who know me - I love to garden. I wish my soil was a bit easier to deal with here on the farm, but there are ways to fix that. I was excited to have a spot to have a veggie garden, as there is nothing better than fresh tomatoes from your very own garden. The harvest started with strawberries and radishes. We had a great season of strawberries, I picked nearly an ice cream pail full every day for the month of June! The radishes were good - but I always forget to pace my planting of them and we have so many all at once and then we can't eat them all up - and they don't freeze well! Right now we are enjoying peas and yellow beans! I couldn't find any green bean seeds this year - and to be honest I like yellow ones better anyway - so I only planted yellow beans. They didn't come up as well as I had hoped, but we will get enough to have a few feeds and maybe a couple of bags in the freezer as well. I'm anxiously awaiting the beets to be ready so I can make up some pickled beets! They are a favourite in our house. And the first tomato is always a treat too! Especially with some bacon on a sandwich! And when my cucumbers come on I will be able to put a slice of cucumber on my sandwich too! My Mom and Dad have a bunch of ever-bearing raspberry bushes, so I got some from them to transplant to my place. They are called ever-bearing, because once they start to produce berries, they continue to do so until frost! I'm looking forward to the first berry off those plants as well. I worked on my flower beds as well this spring. I transplanted some Chinese lantern plants from my mom's - which is kind of funny cause I gave her the first ones that she had at her place - they look nice - but do tend to take over a little bit.... these are the beds at the back of the house - so they get lots of shade and the hostas love it! They have come up big this season. In my front bed This is when I planted the petunias! I have a few hostas and I planted some marigolds and some wave petunias. I have planted some chives in between the petunias as well although they are kind of hard to see amongst the purple and pink flowers. Hope you enjoyed my quick garden tour! Chow for now, Jacqui

Some more movie reviews!!!

I've watched a few movies in the last few days - it's too bloody hot to do anything else...so I sit my fat arse down on the couch - with the fan blowing directly on me and pop in a video! Although I did go to the theatre to see some!! Which was wonderful with the air conditioning pumping into the room!!! Joel (my son) treated me to the movies!!! We went to see Transformers, Dark Side of the Moon. It was awesome. I love love love the Transformer movies. Shia Lebouf is great and it was nice to see Patrick Dempsey outside the box of McDreamy. The funny Asian fella from the Hangover movies was in it as well, which made Joel laugh out loud. I still can't believe that man is a doctor. We also watched Knight and Day with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. I have been wanting to watch this one for a while and it was good. Cute little story with some action on the side! We also watched Soul Surfer. WOW...this was a really good movie. It is based on the true story of Bethany Hamilton who was well on her way to becoming a professional surfer when her arm was bitten off by a shark. She still reached her goal of becoming a professional surfer, but the story of how she got there was very emotional and inspirational. Helen Hunt and Dennis Quaid played her parents in the show. I've always liked Dennis Quaid and this movie did not disappoint. I like Helen Hunt as well, but I wish she would have left her face alone. She looked way better in the movie Twister, than she did in this one. Why do people have to be so vain? Anyhow, I hope you enjoy my movie review and if you get a chance to watch them - I would say ENJOY!! Chow for now, Jacqui

Concord Crush shower card

A friend of mine at work asked me to make a shower card for her to give to another friend. The colours were a deep deep purple, so I used concord crush. It's kind of hard to see the colour in the picture. I like the way this one turned out - I love using this little dress for shower cards. Thinking of making cards....I better get started on Courtney's wedding thank yous! Chow for now Jacqui

Butterflies

I made this book when I was up at my BFF's place in the spring. I see all these cool little books and things on the Internet and on other people's blogs and I want to try them.....usually I'll share the instructions with my friend Kim and then we will plug away at working on them.......She ALWAYS finishes hers....me....not so much!!! I have good intentions...but sometimes I just can't finish it.... I have many an unfinished project in my stamp room! Bad I know.!! But I did finish this one....well finished as in making...but not finish as in adding pictures etc. It was kinda fun to do though! Chow for now, Jacqui

The Last page.....

Well this brings us to the last page of the scrapbook I made for my friend Rob to give to his partner Curtis for his 50th birthday. I had so much fun making it. Rob gives me all of his pictures when he comes home from his trips! I have made them a calendar for the last 3 years now I think and I use their pictures for each month! Here is the last layout in the book. It's simple and only a single pager - and apparently Curtis's favourite place in the world! I also made this journal so people could write comments or something in when they came to his party. I just scooped up a book from the dollar store and then covered it. I like the way it turned out. Chow for now, Jacqui

Buildings and more buildings....

One of the layouts I did for my friends book was with a mess of pictures they had taken of different buildings and structures along their travels. I got these printed small as well because there were lots and lots of them. Chow for now. Jacqui

Eatin' and Drinkin'

It seems that's what I have been doing alot of lately, with Courtney's stag and doe this past weekend and two showers! So I thought I would share with you the eating layout I did for Rob and Curtis's book. They have traveled to so many places, they actually just got back from another cruise, and many of the pictures they show me involve food! I got the pictures printed off small - I think 3 X 5. This way I could put more on the page. I like the way this layout turned out. Chow for now, Jacqui

Check out these beauties!!

When we moved from Woodstock to Sylvan I brought some of my plants with me. I have some plants that have sentimental value to me. I won't go into a big long explanation about it, because I'm certain I have in a previous post! I wanted to show you though - how beautiful my lilies look this year! I transplanted them and they were rough last year - I wasn't sure they were gonna make it, but look at them!! They look awesome. Here are some day lilies as well. I didn't plant them, they came with the place!! But they are out in full bloom as well. We saw a couple of movies recently. One was Unknown with Liam Neeson. This was pretty good. It didn't have the outcome I thought it was going to. I thought I had it all figured out - but I didn't! So I guess it was good in that respect - it had me guessing right till the end. We also saw Water for Elephants. This was a very good movie. I like Reese Witherspoon and although I am a die hard Twilight fan, it was nice to Robert Pattinson doing a character other than Edward. I really enjoyed this one. I have not read the book, but it is on my list of "to read". Chow for now, Jacqui