Reversible Handmade Signs

I've been making these signs inspired by "Ghost Whisperer" for a few years now and just love them. I posted a few on my Etsy shop tonight. Take a look-see.


Here / Not Here
Open / Shut
Open / Closed

An investment for the future

An investment for the future, originally uploaded by SudsMuffinCanada.

Maybe I'm crazy but I came upon a great deal for 2 retail display cabinets that I just had to buy them. The crazy part? They are much too big for my current shop and I have no plans to move any time soon. Ah, but when the time comes, I won't need to shell out big money on display cabinets because I will have these babies in storage. What do you think? Good move?

Another Ice Storm and Power Outage

It was a miserable weather day today, with freezing rain off and on all day long. This meant an armour layer of ice on the car, that required chipping off a few times throughout the day.

On the way home, we noticed truck from the local power utility working on power lines by the breakwater. So for the rest of the drive home I looked in all the houses for some sign of light within. Nothing. Once we pulled into the driveway, it was obvious that the entire neighbourhood was without power. Hubby got out and quickly shoveled the wet crusty snow from the walkway, getting drenched by the pouring rain in the process. It was then that I suggested that we just go out for a quick supper. So we went back out and hit the drive through at the local Arby's and headed back home to eat by candlelight.

Hubby left for work and my little apprentice and I retired to my bedroom with the laptop and watched The Incredibles from my bed. It was so much fun with the oil lamp lighting the room, the cat snuggled at our feet and the two of us snuggling under the blankets. We watched the movie until the battery died. Then we switched to the iPod and watched Discovery Channel podcasts that I had downloaded, until that battery died.

We continued to snuggle and I quizzed her in verb conjugation until we decided to roll over and snooze for a bit. We just started to drift off when all the lights came back on. What crazy timing, just in time for me to record hubby's favourite shows tonight. With all that, I hope he makes it home ok on the slushy roads.

My back yard and my old car

My back yard and my old car, originally uploaded by SudsMuffinCanada.

This is what my back yard looked like just a few days ago. Today it's raining steadily and while a fair bit of snow has melted from it, there's still no getting the car out of there at the moment.

Front window of my shop

Front window in my shop, originally uploaded by SudsMuffinCanada.

I took this picture of my shop window a few days ago. This is our Candy Cane soap cake, looking all delicious on the café table.

Union Street on Sunday morning

Union Street on Sunday morning, originally uploaded by SudsMuffinCanada.

We went out for breakfast yesterday morning and stopped by our shop for a few things. I took the opportunity to try out my new camera on a few street shots. I really like how this one came out, so bare and desolate, even for a Sunday morning. I am standing in front of my store, just out of view on the right, and we had breakfast at Cora's just around the corner, down the street between the white house and the brick building on the left.

Breakfast was delicious and we made a great contact. Our waitress is opening an organic spa and was meaning to come and talk to us about creating an organic skin care line for her business. How much kismet is that?

Butterfly Maze Book

I thought I would change things up a bit by showing some of the other items I also make (or in this case, have made in the past).

This is a little 3x3 maze book. The inside pages are made by cutting a single 12x12 sheet of scrapbook paper which then gets folded into a booklet. It's very simple to make. The cover is simply scrapbook paper over a piece of cardboard cut from a cereal box (I save all my cereal and cracker boxes for various projects).

The paper is from K&Co and I just love the sparkly butterflies as well as the little pockets that this technique creates inside the booklet. It's a perfect little mini album and the pocket can hold small pictures, journalling tags or memorabilia.

6 O'Clock Card - Thank You

Stamped on the untextured side of Bazzill card stock because I got an incomplete stamp on the other side. So flipped it over and voilà! I thought the dragonfly bling would be a cute touch. I did a different technique for the sentiment. First I heavily inked the stamp with brown ink then applied a bit of black over the brown, then I stamped the card. I like how it made a brown outline around the black and almost looks like it was stamped twice.

6 O'Clock Card - Together

6 O'Clock Card - Follow your own path

New card made yesterday. Cuckoo clock image from Amy Butler. Sentiment cut from back of Amy Butler packaging.

6 O'Clock Card - Our souls are the same

My beautiful MiniMuffin

My beautiful MiniMuffin, originally uploaded by SudsMuffinCanada.

I was playing around a bit with my new Rebel 400D and the telephoto lens. I'm still learning; have lots to learn actually. MiniMuffin was playing Wii and she looked over at me and I snapped this. You can see her earring still swinging. Anyhow, I thought it was a lovely shot, even if it was in very low light. This picture of her just makes my heart swell.

6 O'Clock Card - True Happiness

I just bought a DSLR Camera

It's a Canon EOS Rebel 400D xti and I am LOVING it, but oh I have so much to learn. It's clear already that this camera takes straight up noticeably better pictures than my point and shoot (also a Canon). It's simply an amazing Camera. I want to go everywhere and take pics with it. It's fantastic.

These are my very first pics out of the camera. Not the best but I thought they were sorta cute.

My little apprentice playing on the Wii

She looks like she's saying a bad word. haha

Miss Chai enjoying the heater on my computer desk. Love the paw...

Stay tuned for more as I learn my camera.

6 O'Clock Card - As boundless as the sea

6 O'Clock Card - How do I love thee?

6 O'Clock Card - We have been friends

I made all the cards in these most recent posts quite some time ago. I had a pack of rub-on sentiments that I just loved and couldn't stop using them. I haven't made any cards this week as my schedule has been a bit wild and I've been working on my SudsMuffin website. We're going to be revamping the look over there a bit and will soon be offering soap crafting supplies and kits. Stay tuned!

More Winter Pictures

This past weekend, my little apprentice spent the weekend at her grandfather's house. He is so good to her (and to us) and they both enjoy each other's company so much. These pictures are great because they bring back so many memories of the tunnels he used to help us dig when we were her age. She had a blast!

Here she is in the snow at the back of Papie's house. It sure looks different in the Winter with all the gardens covered in white.

I wonder what's in here...

Did anybody see a rabbit go this way?

Hello there!

6 O'Clock Card - A friend in need

6 O'Clock Card - The road to a friend's house