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Friday, November 28, 2008

Friday Five - 28th November 2008 - on time, yay me!!!

1.) What's a good name for a frog?
Kyle, tooootally

2.) Will you be doing any shopping on Black Friday (for the Americans)?
I bought a few bits and bobs from the NHL shop in last year's BF sale - but not this year - skint as a skint thing - boo hoo

3.) When do you put up your Christmas tree (for those of you that do)?
I'm feeling very bah humbug this year but will have to do the tree at some point - a couple of weeks before the big day I expect.

4.) Who is the hardest person on your list to shop for?

Ummm - I haven't even thought about pressies yet - but I have NO idea what I'm going to get for my other half. No idea at all. I hope he isn't expecting anything expensive lol

5.) Is there any new gadget coming out this holiday season that you want?

Nope, not really. There's only one thing I really, really want for Christmas (other than world peace, the Cup and a cure for my best mate), and that's the new Canucks DVD. I'm easily pleased.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Wow. just wow.

I have just heard a track from John's upcoming album.

Stunning.

I can't WAIT until Jan 20th!!!!!!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Looky here - my photos in the programme - yay!


The bottom 2 pics are mine, from the Romford game last weekend.

Chuffed :)

And handily Sitko was on autograph duty after the game so I got him to sign the photo with him in it, an added bonus

We won, by the way, and we won again tonight - 4 point weekend, just what we needed :)

Today's headline at NHL.com sums it up

Canucks Win, but Lose

After the most perfect road trip, culminating with 2 points taken from the Penguins in Pittsburgh, the Canucks world should be partying. But I think we would all have happily traded that win for a healthy Captain.

heal up, Roberto x

Saturday, November 22, 2008

A charmed collaboration

As many of you know, my best mate Alison has been stuck in hospital for the last 9 months, which is, frankly, a nightmare for her.

A lot of her crafting and forum friends have asked me over the months if there is anything they can do - send a card or a gift etc etc

One of them found a link online to a group of friends who had made a collaborative charm bracelet for one of their number who was also stuck in hospital, and we liked the idea so much we decided to do one for Alison.

Over the past few months a wonderful variety of handmade charms have been falling onto my doormat, and finally here is the finished gift.

It has gone in the post to Alison today (I couldn't deliver it in person as the hospital she is in has an infection doing the rounds at the moment and they have cancelled all visiting :( ), and I hope she loves it, I'm sure she will.



The pic above shows the finished bracelet - you can see a gallery of individual photos of each charm here

Each participant also decorated a 4" x 4" page for me to bind into a book to accompany the bracelet. I stuck a photo of each charm onto the back of the the person who made it's page - and also added their name - so that Alison knows who made what.

Some of the pages were quite bulky, so I wasn't sure how to bind them at first - but a few of them lent themselves to being bound on the right hand side rather than the left, so I went for a gatefold book in the end:

Book closed - held shut with a ribbon:
Close up of right hand side of book cover:
Book open, showing first 2 pages (by Hazel and Sara):
Book standing open:

Thank you SO much to everybody who took part!

Whooooaaoo Whooooaaooaaa Woooooaaoo

so sweet

I love my boys!!!!!

Friday, November 21, 2008

Friday Five - 21st November 2008 - and a couple of tags

1.) What food did you hate as a kid that your parental figure still insisted that you had to eat?
I really can’t remember ever being forced to eat anything. It was in my interest to eat what was put in front of me, though, because I certainly wouldn’t have been offered an alternative.

2.) Is it wintery yet where you live?
No it’s more autumnal than wintery – although I heard rumours we may be seeing some snow this weekend

3.) Have you made a Christmas list?
No - I don’t even want to think about Christmas. I will decorate the house though (unlike last year when I completely pretended it just wasn’t happening) and send a handful of cards. And kiddies, best mates, dad, sister and boyfriend will get presents. Ah – so yes, I guess that IS my Christmas list :)

4.) Do you call other people's parents by their first names?
No way. I don’t like using people’s names at all, I always try and avoid directly addressing people. Instead of calling “Sandra, could I….” across the room, I’d walk over to them and say “hi – could I…..” or “excuse me, could I…..”. I don’t know why that is, but as far back as I can remember, I have always gone out of my way to avoid using names.

5.) In an ideal world, what time would you go to bed?
Never! I could watch all the west coast hockey live, and I could get SO much more DONE if I didn’t have to sleep. It would be fantastic!

Now some tags.

I've been tagged this week by both the lovely Rhomany and the equally lovely Paula - they'd get on well, actually, those two, thinking about it - both gothy art journallers - I ought to introduce them....

The "rules" of Rho's tag:

Link the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.
Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links.
Let each person know that they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.


and of the PLO-lady's:

1. Link to the person or persons who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.


They look pretty similar to me - basically I just have to think of 7 or 13 things to say about me (depending on whether I can count the 6 as a subset of the 7, or add them together)

Let's see how many I can think of....

1. I’m a vegetarian – not that that’s weird or particularly random, but I guess it’s not something everyone knows. I gave up meat at around the age of 15, was vegan through university and a bit beyond (but missed cheese waaaay too much), had a bit of a relapse in my 30s when I ate a bit of chicken and fish, but went back to being a full time veggie a few years back and I expect it to be permanent this time

2. I occasionally consider rainbows to be direct messages to me from John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist, and all round legend), but I don’t consider myself to be loopy, just open minded :D

3. I put off going to see my local ice hockey team play for ages because I was led to believe they would be a huge disappointment compared to the NHL. Now they are a HUGELY important part of my life and I’m kicking myself for all those missed games.

4. I got a detention at school for “hypnotising” Debbie Smith and making her go onto the boys’ playground, pull down her knickers and lift her skirt right up. Now – at the time – I thought this was conclusive proof that I was a master hypnotist. With hindsight, I think maybe Debbie Smith was just a bit of an exhibitionist :D

5. I am very faddy – I always need new challenges – I love doing art and craft stuff but once I get to the point where I’ve finished learning about a technique/medium and am finally equipped to start applying all that learning, I get bored and move onto the next craft. Hence my current fascination with embroidery, of all things. Heaven help me, I’ll be knitting next!

6. Long, preferably curly, hair sticking out from under a hockey helmet makes my heart go pitter patter - I can’t help it. Now before the puck bunny accusations start flying (and to be fair, I think I’m too old to be a puck bunny anyway) – I’m a proper hockey fan, really I am, I’m not just there for the boys, I’d still go to see the Wildcats week in week out and love them JUST as much if they were all total mingers :D But if there just happen to be a couple of lookers on the rosters of my respective teams, that, as far as I’m concerned, is a bonus! In fact, I think that women get that little bit more from the game than the boys do - we can enjoy/appreciate it on the same level - hell I can discuss plus/minus, goals against averages, and the Wild's trap system till the sun comes up, try me! - but we also get that leeetle tingle on top. We lucky bitches! :D

7. My most precious (non living) possession is my Canucks stick, signed by the entire 2003-4 roster – although my game worn Kesler jersey runs a close second

8. It has taken me 40 years to work out the difference between a good man and a rubbish one, and why the former make much better boyfriends :) better learnt late than never, I suppose

9. I have been in two short films both of which won awards – one when I was little that was exhibited at Cannes and, I think, won its category (I don’t remember what it was called, just that it involved me wandering around in the woods in a white dress) – and this one that won a BBC short film prize (I’m the one with the blonde coronets, on the left, attempting to look mean and moody @ 04:45)

10. Following on from number 9, I used to teach line dancing (Wolf from Gladiators, for that film, was definitely my most difficult pupil!), and even won a couple of competitions. Haven’t done it in years though, I’d love to get back into it one day.

11. When I was younger I really, really, really wanted to be a marine biologist. I had visions of swimming alongside blue whales and learning to communicate in dolphinese. Then I found out that, in reality, the job mainly consists of examining plankton under a microscope. So I kind of went off the idea.

12. I've kept rats on and off for 20 odd years. They are the best pets evah evah evah! And we also have an African Pygmy Hedgehog in the house, called Tau, who is utterly adorabubble

13. Yay! I made it to 13! Ummmm..... I once screeched to a halt on the way to a wedding that I was already a little late for because I saw the coolest ceramic phrenology bust in an antique shop window and had......to.......own....it!!!!!

I'm not going to pass the tags on, as I hate to feel that I am passing on an obligation..... but if you're reading this and you want to play, play!

And finally (this has been a mammoth post) - one thing that bugs me about blogger is the lack of emoticons - as sometimes I think you need them to clarify tone..... so I use :) and :D a lot on here ..... just want to test if this will work: - any luck?
Hopefully you can see the little smiley, wavey man and he doesn't distort the text around him too much....

Hot diggedy damn!!!! it feels SO good to be a Canucks fan right now!!!

  • 3 points clear at the top of our division

  • sitting pretty in the top 3 in the West

  • 6th in the whole damn league

  • We ran all over the best in the East - sorry Nazzy!!!

  • our goalie is a GOD and our backup's pretty darned sound too

  • Kesler's line walks on water

  • Wellwood is the feel-good story of the year

  • Ohlund? he deserves some hot damns all of his own - look at his performance in the Rangers game, wow, for which I don't think the shirt can take all the credit :) PLEASE don't trade him Mr Gillis!!!

  • Willie Mitchell - points machine :D Who'dathunkit?

  • Demitra is looking better than he has in years

  • the twins are playing like they're in a contract year (ah...wait.... :))

  • WE JUST ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love this feeling!!!!!!

I'm proud to be a Canucks fan even when they are bombing out - but right now I'm outright SMUG!

And potentially somewhat over confident when I say Penguins? Bring it on!!!!!

(really looking forward to this game - the Pens are rapidly overtaking the Caps as my darlings in the East, and not only because the Cookie monster is having such a ball there - only annoying thing is that, although it is on at a wonderful time slot for us Brits, starting at 7pm our time, I won't be able to watch it live as I'll be at the Wildcats.... so nobody tell me the score before Sunday, k?)


Some fab pics from the New York road trip:

(I wonder if Jeff Vinnick wants an assistant? or a wife?)

Eeeek - crazy man drilling Kes's head!
Luongo - the best dressed homeless guy in New York
Willie entertains
Hordy is just such a cutie pie
Poor Big Bear looks more like Big Brrrrrrrr

Sunday, November 16, 2008

My baby

I snapped these in 2 seconds in poor indoor lighting yesterday while getting ready for the hockey game - my awesome new ice hockey lens is an awesome portrait lens too, it seems!




I especially like the ones of him practicing his rock star moves with the Guitar Hero geetar :)




As for the hockey game, I took a trillion photos, but I'm still yet to get that killer shot that I am 100% pleased with. Good job I get to at least a game a week - plenty of practice!

I do quite like this one, though - from the point near the end of the game when Sitko had lost his stick and decided that without it his best move was to grab onto the opposition for dear life :)



It was a great night of hockey for me - Wildcats beat the Romford Raiders 7-2, and then I came home and watched the Canucks similarly trump the Leafs 4-2. It just doesn't get better than that. Boy I wish we could play the Leafs more often, it was one of the most entertaining games I have watched in a long time.

The first 5 minutes were intense - we were outshot from the off, and Toronto got a virtually 2 minute 5 on 3 which was terrifying! They were coming down on us like a ton of bricks and then Lu lost his paddle. And like the miracle worker he is he managed to save at least 2 more good hard shots after that with no stick. It was amazing to watch, mindblowing, really! Wellwood got the first goal in traditional stick-it-to-the-team-that-traded-you stylee, and Kes the second on the powerplay if I remember rightly. Willie Mitchell - yes Willie Mitchell - got the game winner with a cute little tip in that looked like it surprised him as much as the rest of us - he has already been getting stick in the locker room for his little streak of assists, this is going to have finished him off :D And Dank put in an extra one for insurance. Demitra was back in the line up after a while off with injury, and it looks like he's better - three assists - THAT's the playmaking king we thought we were getting - good stuff. All in all, we looked OK out there (not perfect, in fact far from it - but good enough to stuff it to the East - yeah!!!)

Just writing all that has got me all pumped up again lol - gotta love that adrenaline rush....

It inspired me to have a little play in Photoshop :)


Now - if I could get a shot like THIS, then I'd be a happy bunny!


Although, to be fair, I'd have to be sitting IN the goal.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Do I like the new alternate jersey?


Yes, yes I think I do :)

I love Johnny Canuck on the shoulders, and I see what they have done with the stick in rink to make the C more prominent. And I always loved the vintage kit anyway.

added to my christmas list....

Trying to decide whose name and number to go for, though. I already have 2 Keslers, a Linden and a Bertuzzi. Tempted to go for Lu's if I can get one with the C. But then again he's maybe too obvious a choice. There are lots of other current Canucks I like a lot - Burrows perhaps....or Hordy. Ohlund would be cool with the A (although if I was going for an A I probably ought to get another Kesler)

decisions decisions.....

Friday Five - 14th November 2008

Oh goody - an all hockey five :) This one won't mean much to many people out there, but it's fun for me.

1.) Toews or Kane?
Hard to separate these two, I kind of think of them as a bit of an item. I haven't seen that many Chicago games recently - none at all yet this season - but in one memorable game about this time last year I remember a big hit on Kane at GM Place where he flew over the boards onto his bench - bless, poor young 'un (snigger). And they are way too young for me to choose based on attractiveness, that would be almost illegal. So I'll go for Toews based on a very pretty goal I vaguely remember seeing on HNIC last season.

2.) Mikko or Saku Koivu?
Well, I'm still a bit miffed with Mikko for elbowing Kesler in the chin the other night (and kind of proud of Kes for winding him up that much that he wanted to lol) - so I'll choose Saku. They are both a lock for the All Star game, by the look of things, nothing dodgy going on there ;)

3.) Sidney Crosby or Alexander Ovechkin?
This one is the easiest, Ovie WITHOUT HESITATION - I love the way he plays, and his humour, and his loyalty to his team, and the whole sweet internet bride thang, and he's just so cute in a cabbage patch doll kinda way :)

4.) Henrik Zetterberg or Pavel Datsyuk?
My best mate fancies Zetts, I don't see it myself. He is amazing to watch on the ice, though. I do like my Selke candidates, and both of these boys have the defensive forward thing down. Ummmm - I'll go Pavel, but it's close.

5.) Joe Sakic or Steve Yzerman?
For the most pointless reason - Stevie Y - because I have his autograph :) Only by accident, mind - I have a stick signed by the 2003/4 Canucks roster and it was originally issued by his company, and so his scrawl is on the CoA

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Creating shouldn't be so difficult...it never used to be

....but this CJ entry has taken me nigh on a week, and it really shouldn't have taken anywhere near that long!

Anyway, it's done now :)

This is my entry in Lori's book in the Tattoo CJ circle. Her theme is "the good, the bad and the ugly" - great fun theme - it gave me an excuse to scour the net for some really naaaasty tattoos, and also some really amazingly wonderful ones.


The actual layout uses all sorts of random stuff I had lying about - the fabulous leg was cut out of a tattoo mag; the black netting used to add a bit of texture to the background, while also toning down the bold pattern of the floral paper underneath, was cut out of an old pair of Connor's tracksuit bottoms lol; and the black tape around the edges of the pages is hockey tape - which is JUST like 7 Gypsies bookbinding tape but about a tenth of the price :)

I got the gorgeous wooden swallows from Etsy.



The text up in the top right hand corner (which is somewhat less violently pink in real life, the flash messes with it) was generated with an Around The Block label machine - just like an old fashioned Dymo but with cooler fonts



I made my leggy lady a footrest from red felt, with stamped calico labels for three little accordion books - these contain photos of good, bad, and ugly tattoos I had found on my Google expedition. I had to hand sew this onto the paper and mesh backing, because my sewing machine wasn't having any of it.

The accordion book covers were made with some leather-style vinyl I picked up in the scrapstore years ago. It was white, but I coloured it with red and black alcohol inks, and perforated it around the borders of each cover with a tracing wheel, which you can't really see in the pics, but it makes them look quite convincing IRL.


The accordion books look like this ^ once opened.

A closer look at the contents of the three books is below:

The good


The bad



The ugly



So that's one CJ down 2 more to go in the next couple of weeks - it's a good job I have deadlines because it is keeping me making stuff even when I'm not really in the mood for it. I know I would be really frustrated with myself if I let myself stop altogether.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

They caught me out this week....

I went looking for the Friday Five and it wasn't there.... because instead this week there was a Saturday Six (I guess those hlog girlies want to keep us on our toes)

So here goes:

1.) Do you like rain?
I tolerate it, and appreciate that we need it for the plants to grow, but have seen rather too much of it for comfort this year, I think this summer was the wettest since records began or something equally dramatic

2.) What day of the week is laundry day?
Every day! I have three kids, and a tumble dryer that is on its last legs so takes forever to dry anything, and as already mentioned, it's not like I can hang anything outside to dry because IT IS ALWAYS RAINING - so the dryer is on constantly and the washing machine isn't far behind

3.) Are you addicted to Youtube?
Nah, the novelty has worn off a bit now. I still find it a really useful resource, though.

4.) How efficiently can you type one handed?

Not that well, as it's hard to do the capital letters if they are a long way from the shift button

5.) Did you indulge in any leftover Halloween candy?
Yes but not much, as most of it looked naaaasty

6.) What are your plans for Thanksgiving? If you are Canadian, what did you do for your Thanksgiving?
We don't have Thanksgiving here. But I think we should, it's a good concept.

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Getting better with my new lens....


I had another practice with my lovely new lens last night at the Guildford game (which saw our boys playing with real heart, fighting for every puck, and basically making me proud, we lost more through bad luck than lack of effort).

And although I'm still having a bit of problem with the depth of field, these are tons better than last week's.

Getting there. By the end of the season I reckon I'll have mastered it :)

Scroll to the bottom for first view of Sitko's new Village People cop moustache. Lovin' it! :D

Full set of pics here









awww he so cuuuute :D

it's the little "hallo" at the start

I am so smitten lol


Saturday, November 08, 2008

and what a superb goal by Sitko!

This is uber cool

Local video firm Crazy Dog Media have teamed up with my Wildcats to produce a few game DVDs, complete with commentary and player/coach interviews and all sorts of bells and whistles

It's fab!

Here is a little vid they have put together to promote the three DVDs so far filmed. I'm hoping to pick up the one from the Telford game tonight.



I could watch this over and over :) It's so surreal seeing my team playing, on the TV, with a commentator. HNIC here we come :)

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Tau is such a cutie

some piccies of our surprisingly cuddly hedgehog:

(ok, when I say our, I mean Darby's, but I reckon that makes me her granny)