I made a surprise for a friend today! Shhhhhhhh..... don't tell her. Hehehe. I'm so excited.

Spread the Love!

Peace!
Tammy

Happy day! Not much to blog about today but I kind of like checking in anyway. My last blog I noticed is difficult to read and I tried my best to fix it but I couldn't seem to put spaces between paragraphs! Hopefully, this works out much better then yesterday.

It was a good day I have to say tho. We had some fun. Our children are wired for Christmas! We made pretty coasters and my daughter wants to take them to the Children's Hospital, I think it's so sweet!

I was lucky enough to be given a few wonderful gifts today. Some beautiful Christmas ornaments and 2 very very lovely candle holders. Yay! I'm so grateful for the people in my life. :)
























And, so what did I do to help make the world a better place after receiving so many gifts? Well, I made some jewelry pieces for my children's teachers and managed to get them out on time for the first time in 2 years! I recycled today. I gave someone a random compliment. I think the more good you offer... genuine goodness without expectations... the more comes back to you! The Dalhi Lama has a wonderful quote

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. "

Spread the Love folks. Thanks for stopping by. :)

Peace.
Tammy

Gingerbread Houses and Crazy Creative Authors

Hello terrific Tuesday!

My son brought home the most amazing smelling gingerbread house since gingerbread houses have entered the traditions in our home! Oh sweet chocolate and caramel. Yes, a Delicious graham cracker house doused in a sweet vanilla icing and dabbled with candy cane pieces, hard strawberry candies and chocolates! Then he topped it all over with caramel!!! Honestly, if someone knows anyone who sells good quality incense that smell like chocolate and caramel please please I beg you to tell me as soon as possible!

And, another fabulous gift in my day was my chance meeting with Canadian author Gordon Kirkland at a fabulous little bookstore called Heron's Books! What a blessing in this day to have met him and his brother-in-law who is a self proclaimed worlds biggest KISS fan and soon to be author of a cookbook!

On the day after I get my daughters report card with more 2's then I can to see, I am able to let go of my fears and concerns for her future and trust without a doubt in my heart that I need to continue doing what I'm doing and keep letting my daughter spread her beautiful wings. He reminded me without even having to say it, that not everyone fits into the boxes that society sets out for us and the greatest entertainers in this world were not always the ones that sat quietly, nodded nicely and always minded their p's and q's. The greatest entertainers in this world shook things up... they make us think twice before we blink because we are told to blink.

Okay, back to Gordon Kirkland, if you need a good belly laugh and your heart or mind eased I highly recommend one of his many terrific books. Some of his titles include Justice is Blind: And Her Dog Just Peed In My Cornflakes, Never Stand Behind A Loaded Horse and my personal favorite When My Mind Wanders It Brings Back Souvenirs.

Gordon Kirkland: "When Pavlov rang his bell, his dog would drool. Whenever anyone rang our bell, Nipper, the late, great dumbest dog to ever get lost on a single flight of stairs would pee. Same concept. Different end of the dog. " My tummy actually hurts from laughing so hard!

He is putting on a writers workshop at Heron's Book Store in January. I am hoping to attend and maybe something will open so that I'm able to if it's for the highest good. :)

It's funny how life works, when you stay alert and open the universe will invariably, take care of you. Always, the perfect person, opportunity, book, song, whisper, inspiration will happen at the right moment. You have to keep your ears, eyes and heart open to recognize it when it comes but it comes... guaranteed the guidance will come. Trust and all will be okay. Trust and let go and life will take you exactly where you are supposed to be in order to reach your highest potential in this life. It's rather exciting when you think about it! The opportunities to learn and grow and expand are endless!

Spread the Love!

Peace,

Tammy

Good Morning Monday! I woke up this morning feeling light and relaxed. There is some excitement in the air! It is a good day. I can see that the giant artist in the sky has painted us yet another masterpiece.. a forever changing work of art. Today, the children and I will spin around outside with our heads turned upward and the Spirits of the Wind whirling through our Hearts, until we all fall down laughing! Blessed we are to be alive in this fabulous world. I am truly blessed and very grateful for everything in my life.

Last night I finished the scarf that I'm knitting for my daughter. She asked me if I would please please knit her a rainbow scarf for her. I'm not much of a knitter at this point... I can do dishcloths, a simple scarf, and only recently learned to knit a touque! A good start. :) I know she'll be pretty happy about it. :)

I am also half way through making her a matching hat with little tassels on it. It's pretty cute! My 5 yr old son caught me making it for her and said that he really really wanted one as well so I'll start on his next. :)

I'm looking forward to learning how to make slippers over the holidays. My Mom is law is a fantastic crocheter and knitter and makes the best ever checkerboard slippers! I'm looking forward to spending some time snuggled down with her learning how to knit the famous slippers.

That's it for know folks! Spread the Love. Thanks for stopping in. :) Tammy

Today is Sunday. We've had a good day, snuggling down cozy and warm. The wind is whipping up a wonderful ruckus and outside my bedroom window I was blessed with a beautiful bald eagle sighting. I have a wonderful book I'm looking forward to snuggling down with called The Artist's Way by Julia Cameran. My children were wonderful to watch and listen to, full of excitment, lots of playing and just hanging out with each other. I'm feeling a little quiet today. I think it's time to turn in and finsh my 'Candy Bracelet'.... and maybe I'll have a piece of pie! :D

Peace and Love everyone. Thanks for stopping by. :)

Snails are disappearing!

Hello. :)

So, the day after I posted about the snail problem my light burnt out in the tank. I haven't replaced it yet but what I have noticed is that the snail investation has mysteriously been declining. This is a good thing as nature has it's way. I also thought that perhaps I would carefully fish them out and put them in their own little tank and let them have at it, maybe give them away? Anyway... I'm leaving the snail situation and will wait a little while longer and see what happens.

Until then I thought you might like to check out this very cool website! Someone on ETSY.com post a link to it and I've been giving my vocab a workout since. Warning... it can be addicting and it may make you smarter. :)

http://www.freerice.com

Peace and Love folks. Thanks for stopping in. :)

The Higher Perspective

In thinking about this a little more I realize, it's a call into something deeper. A challenge offered to me almost it feels like to soar higher and in a balanced and lightly detached way see the bigger picture. It's not just about the snails. It's not just about releasing them (tho it sounds like a great idea). It's about looking higher and seeing how every little action, every tiny step we take effects the whole. Like the butterfly effect... we may think that what we are doing is for the greater good but if we step back and look even higher and deeper and detached a moment from our own personal opinions on it, slowly walk all around the situation to see it from all angles... if we look more carefully we see that even with our greatest intentions we still can make big mistakes. And it's okay! We are human. But, it's about feeling More, and how we need to have more. It's about taking less and giving more back. Humbly saying Thank you. I have enough. Thank you. I am enough. Thank you. We are full. And, now it's time to start sharing our bounty.

In getting this fish tank to begin with was about my own personal gain. I wanted pretty fish to look at. It's not good enough that I live with many lakes around me and a huge vast ocean only a 20min drive away. I wanted them in my home as well... Innocent enough. I have contributed greatly to many things in doing so. I don't even know all of them at this point. First was an impulsive buy in getting this adorable iridescent shark fishy. My intentions where good in that I thought about how happy my husband would be to have a cute little shark in the tank. And, he was the only one left and I thought he looked lonely in the corner. It turns out my tank is to small for the little now but big later guy. In purchasing him, I have encouraged the unfair breeding and treatment of these fishes. In purchasing the tank, I have possibly supported child labour. At least I bought it from a small local business! I'm not feeling guilty at all or placing blame or judgement anywhere.. again, we human.. I'm just waking up and seeing things in the big picture more clearly. I'm learning and listening.

I also understand that the easy way through this could be to just release them into the wild. But, we have caused more pain and destruction to the earth and the living organisms on the Earth by releasing things that are not natural to the habit into our local waterways. In my desire to do the right thing and save these snails, in the larger picture I may be causing one million times more damage.

Here is a u-tube video on what happens when we do this sort of thing. It's hard to watch for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwMSy7xK218&feature=related (am I allowed to post a link?)

If you look up the type of fish these are..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_carp
they are Grass Carp originally from China and introduced to the US for weed control. Well, they are fast breeders and now they are out of control and this is what people are allowed to do to control them. It breaks my heart.

Alright. It's time to step off my soapbox... but wait! This IS my soapbox. It's my own lil blog. Yay!

Thank you for taking the time to think about this with me. I'm grateful to these little snails for helping me to think higher and more carefully.

Peace and Love.

They're Taking Over!

Good Morning! I have snails invading my fish tank and I don't really know what to do with them at this point. I didn't adopt any snails, they sort of hitched along for the ride uninvited on some lovely aquatic plants. I have adopted my own personal no kill policy on life but the dilemma really kicks in when these snails start to multiply into the thousands and take over the tank. My other little fishes are non to happy about the situation either. I have a cute and rather timid iridescent shark that's been floating belly up since these snails have moved in. I can see that he's alive still, he just seems rather stressed out. And, one of my guppies died sadly. *sniffsniff* I tell you, slow and steady does win the race in this case because if they have their innocent way they'll have the tank all to themselves in no time.

So what do you do when you adopt a personal no kill policy for any living thing but one of the uninvited living things in your care starts to kill other invited living things in your care? What would the Dalhi Lama do?

Well, I think it's just about time to make a pot of coffee.

Peace.

Welcome. December 4, 2007

Welcome. Where do I start? I guess it doesn't matter where as long as I start somewhere. Right now, I'm starting here... with this. So, welcome to my lil spot in this vast world. Come on in, grab a cozy blanket, some lovely tea and sit in silence with me for a while.

Peace.