Labour Day 2015

I had a frustrating couple of hours yesterday afternoon, trying to get a newly purchased external hard drive to back up the photos on my computer. It would start the program and then stall out at a mere 3% completed.  Finally ran out of patience and decided I would take myself out to dinner. Ended up at a Wendy's near the airport and was surprised to find at least 30 people out in front of this location, some standing, some sitting in lawn chairs, watching the planes land.  I have eaten at this restaurant now and then during the week and knew the planes flew in directly over the parking lot as they came in to land on the runway across the road but I had no idea that crowds gathered on warm, summer weekend evenings to watch them!

I sat inside and watched the planes pass by the window while I ate. Air Canada, Icelandair, Westjet, Cathay Pacific - quite a variety from who knows what exotic locations, arriving every five minutes or so.  In between, other planes were taking off from the same runway, slowly taxiing into position while we watched.

Afterwards, I joined those standing about their cars in the parking lot and waited for the next plane.

Snapped this photo with my iPhone.

Might need to go back some day with my camera and see if I can get a better shot.  But first, I'm going to have to figure out how to get my photos backed up!

Vintage Cooking

I popped in to an estate sale last weekend and lucked out getting a large metal tin box for only five dollars.  It was chock full of papers and magazines from the 60s and 70s, most of which were recipes and cookbooks. 

The recipe book covers are prime examples of vintage artwork.

I might try out some of the recipes but probably not any of the ones in this booklet.

I never have been a big fan of sauerkraut!

My personal favourite? 

Who doesn't love a good luau?!

Days 2 and 3

Here are my lists from days 2 and 3 of #30DaysofLists. I am enjoying putting these lists together!

When I Can't Sleep

In the dark of night
My mind is awake, keeping
Sleep out of my grasp.

Here is my list for day 4 of #30DaysofLists, what keeps me awake at night. Lucky for me, insomnia doesn't strike too often.  But when it does, these are the usual suspects.

For more Haiku My Heart Fridays, click here to visit Rebecca's blog.

A Photographic Enquiry

It's always a fascination to me to realize total strangers around the world read my blog. How they find it, I don't know - any Google search could point them towards one of my posts, depending on what they are looking for.  Such was the case recently when I had an email enquiry from a writer in Alaska who wanted to use this baby photo in an article he is working on about polar bears, as he thought the rug might be a polar bear skin.

As you may recall if you read this blog post from August 2011, the photo was one contained in a photo album I bought at an antique show.  All I knew was that the photos were probably from Germany and sure enough, here's the text from the back of the image:

The photo is dated 1918 in pencil and was taken in Franfurt but there is nO way of knowing what type of fur that rug might be, so the photo won't be used for his article but that's okay, I still love it!

Mail Call

Thought I would share a couple of gorgeous cards I have recently received in the mail.  Found this beauty in my mailbox today, thank you so much, Marilyn!  I especially love the sentiment, "Procrastinate Tomorrow" - definitely words to live by!!

Last week, this lovely card arrived from Frances.  She and I were paired as penpals earlier this year. The joke was that we both live in the same city! So far, we haven't met but we will, one of these days!

Always a treat to find art in the mailbox, thank you ladies!!

#30DaysofLists

I have signed up to participate in a month long challenge called "30 Days of Lists" that started today.

I first heard about it from my friend Vanessa, who recently posted about it on her blog as she was getting a little book put together to keep her lists in.  The organizers describe it as follows:  "30 Days of Lists is a semi-annual journaling challenge for Listers, from Kam of Campfire Chic and Amy of Lemon and Raspberry.  Not everyone can make a mini scrapbook every week or an art journal page every night. 30 Days of Lists is our encouragement and challenge to you that you CAN journal just something every day — even something as small as a list."  It sounded like fun, so I signed up. Yesterday.  (I'm impulsive that way!)

I want to use as much as I can from the art supplies I already have on hand, so I decided to use this small (4 x 6 inch) Tim Holtz binder. Luckily, I knew exactly where it was stashed and I was able to find it quickly and easily.

I am also going with a vintage theme, which will give me an excuse to use some of my delicious antique invoices, ticket stubs and ledgers and whatever else I can get my hands on.  I also have a number of scrapbook papers with a vintage vibe, I am looking forward to mixing them in as well.

Today's topic is "things you may have heard about me".  Here are the 2 pages I made for day 1, featuring an old photo of myself from 1963.

Here's a closeup of each page:

Many thanks to Maria, who can be found on Etsy and Instagram @OneCraftChick, who made the prompt headings and shared them with our group.

If you are intrigued by the idea of making lists on a daily basis, it's not too late to sign up, click here to find out more about it.