true love

i first started playing with the clear microbeads just as winter arrived. i added some red alcohol ink to some, caramel to others, then some variances in the depth of the colour. mixed some of them together with some clear beads. glued them on to a button, and this is what i got! these microbeads are addictive. just a warning.




just like these paper roses are addictive. they are one of the techniques in my upcoming class that i will be teaching. none of the roses look like any other. i like that!



before i made the layout for the class, i played around with the paper roses on this layout. just wanted to see what kind of effect they would give if they were clustered. or if they needed to be various sizes. yes, those are more microbeads on the Making Memories vintage type letters. i actually used some alcohol ink to colour the tin, then threw on the microbeads. i can see more possibilities with those beads!!

the photo was taken this summer outside of Canmore, Alberta.

when i was 19 i worked as a maid cleaning cabins. it was an amazing experience. not the cleaning part, the non-cleaning parts! (although we did have our share of fun cleaning too, if you can believe it.) we had wanted to do more exploring, but it was rare to have days off with another person who was not hosting friends or family. one place we did frequent because it was a good place to go alone was a bench further up the mountain behind us. actually the trail has several, so it was fun to learn that a "new" bench existed. this particular bench was the one that was the most comfortable to sit at. a great place to sit quietly and view the world from above, read or write in our journals. later on it has become the place where i brought my husband and now my kids. the mountain must be sliding because they now have it propped up behind with some wooden beams. i hope it will be around for awhile longer. (i will need to scan a photo i still have from 1991, when we first discovered it.)

sadly i discovered this summer that the cabins i used to clean are now up for sale. they will most likely not be there the next time we visit. the plan is to sell off the land and buildings for a new development. it was nearly 20 years ago when i worked there and i am always in awe of the changes that have taken place around Canmore when i return. i'm sure the little cabins simply cannot keep up the competition with the brand new buildings. understandable. but still sad. where else can you find the old orange '70's wood-burning, cone-shaped fireplaces?! the interior walls were mostly cedar. tiny bathrooms, only one or two cabins had a bathtub. quaint is the word that best described them. just another set of memories i am so thankful to have.

i thought the layout and even the story behind it was a great one for Valentines Day.


{side note: one aspect that is still there after 20 years is a little pizza place near the industrial section of Canmore called Pizza Construction. no surprise that they are still around. and affordable! the pizza is amazing. they do deliver to the area, but the restaurant is a unique one to eat in. i hope they stay for as long as "the bench"!}