These days I am reminded of a scene from the movie "Parenthood" where Steve Martin's character is always looking for order and plan amid the lively chaos of his life. Grandmother chimes in with how she never liked the merry-go-round as it just went round and round, kind of boring. Rather she liked the roller coaster with the ups and downs, the excitement, the fear, the adventure of it all! Although I am not good on actual roller coasters I am riding one everyday lately.

I find myself as moving day is only a few days away feeling excited one moment, scared the next, missing my daughters who both have moved in the last couple weeks too and feeling sad to leave a place I love. Mix that in with a mover who didn't show up for my daughter's big move out of province, the car breaking down in rush hour traffic, cats being sick, big personal and work commitments and it definitely is a roller coaster life these days!

We never know what each day will bring and that is the adventure of it all, that is life. We can plan our day which should include planning for two hours of chaos in there somewhere. What we also have control over is how we approach each day, greeting the day with gratitude and a sense of adventure, with a playfulness and purpose makes life really worth living.

Life changes abound these days and it is a little scary but the constant through it all is love. My daughters though not under my roof anymore are still in the same place in my heart. I move forward to a new life filled with love and laughter. Life is what we make it. Life is simply a love story. Embrace life and love, hold it always with an open hand and it will remain close to your heart forever! Follow the JOY! Debra, CEO!

 The day has come! The house is feline free! Freda and I are rid of the feline terrors at last! They left for PEI with Kate, we miss Kate but not the C A T S!!! Freda is doing the happy dance! I am afraid she is so happy she might pull a muscle or wear out her toes doing the dance! Debra left us for a couple days to get Kate settled in her new place. We partied just a little, well Freda did have some male company, a new rooster friend she met on Hatch.com. He swept her off her feet with his Frencch Canadian accent, he is from a farm up near Tracadie, NB. I don't find him particularly charming but apparently Freda does! Anyway we managed to clean up all the evidence before Debra got home! I think she was a litte suspicious with the clink in the garbage bag, Freda likes her wine!

So another week and we are out of here ourselves! Debra is off on a new adventure in a new city. She is smiling a lot and has a happy glow, kind of like Freda's but different. Freda doesn't believe in long term relationships but Debra is a committed kind of gal! So the summer is shaping up to be filled with adventures and travel, if we play our cards right we might be able to sneak into her suitcase now and then. If not we will have fun at home, Freda's Tracadie rooster has GPS and I am looking for a rooster myself. I need a little more intellectual stimulation than Freda does, so a rooster who can put more than three words together is required! So that is the scoop for Fowl Friday! Fran & Freda!

Debra is off tonight for a very special reason, the Relay for Life, twelve hour walk 7pm to 7am in honor of her friend Donna who lost her battle with cancer in April. She walks as part of Team Donna and part of a special event that is committed to celebrating the Survivors, honoring those lost and committed to treatment and finding a cure!

Yesterday my youngest daughter moved into her new place on the lovely island and province of Prince Edward Island. To keep her company her three cats moved with her and were very quickly at home. They love the rug and couch from the house and those moved with them. Before we left I used some scrap wood and built them a climbing tower. After seeing the ones in the store for two hundred plus I decided I could build something. Using four by fours, shelving scraps, sisal rope, cheetah fabric from my stash and left over ball fringe pieces from Expo International I built Milla and Bella their tower!

Her new place is on the third floor withut an elevator so there was a lot of stair climbing getting everything in! The movers were great, there were a few tense moments with the oversized couch as it seemed it might be staying in the hall but in the end it made it! The movers left at 2:30 and by the evening everything was in place. We celebrated by collapsing on the above mentioned couch, eating chocolate chip coolies and watching a movie!

Before

After

She is going to be on the island for at least a couple years as she pursues her dream of being a pastry chef. Her kitchen has a big island and I picture her there baking. Her glass cupboard holds her grandmother's china, quirky cow dishes from my guy, a cookbook filled with recipes from her baking stepmom, most of my cookie sheets and a funny fish sculpture from her sister on the island. She heads into her future surrounded by her past and those who love her most dearly. I leave tomorrow excited for her new beginning and my own in less than two weeks! With beginnings there are endings. The little girl with the blanket and bunny is now a tall eighteen year old young woman with her own place ready to build her own life. Am I ready for all of this, do we ever feel ready for major life changes? Probably not but that is what makes for butterfly moments, that fluttery feeling of adventures to come & possiblities unknown. "Life is not measured by the breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away." Always Follw the JOY! Debra, CEO!

Happy Memorial Day to all my American friends and followers. May you share with those you love all that today means to you.

My youngest daughter leaves home this week. I am glad I am going with her to help her settle in. I knew this day would come but am I ready, no. Are we ever ready when each child leaves? I have been a Mom with children at home for twenty seven years in total and now that is ending. I feel excited for her and so sad to see her go. She will be several hours away and I will miss the daily hugs, her sweet smiling face. We wil skype and connect often but a new chapter begins for us both. I move soon myself into a new and exciting time in my life. New beginnings mean endings, life is a mix of events and emotions. I am so very grateful to have been a Mom to two amazing young women who go forward in life contributing to the world in wonderful ways and are a delight to know and love. I have always believed that life is simply a love story. Who we love and how we live with love tells our story. My story has been defined by the most precious of gifts. To my darling daughters Amanda & Kate! Love always xoxo Mum

Fran here on Fowl Friday! We are two frazzled fowl! Debra has had us on duster duty everyday, not only is the feather duster getting thin but my tail feathers are falling out. No sympathy around here, Debra just picks them up and glues them into feather duster! 

Meanwhile those fluffy felines around here do nothing but spread their hair. Also they might be pretty to the human eye but bright they are not. I know Freda isn't the smartest chick about but she is a genius next to the feline trio. As I peck out this post, the youngest Bella is sitting in the screened window pressing her nose against the screen. On the other side of the screen a very large hornet is buzzing away. I wonder how big a cat's nose can swell? Guess we will find out! or not, Debra will probably rescue the fluff ball! The same fluff ball also thinks the fish bowl is a water dish, apparently climbing on a shelf and stretching as far as you can reach and putting your head into oversized bowl is normal for felines!

Packing is underway and Freda found out that packing tape also is very hazardous to feathers. I wonder what it might do to cats, if they were bald our dusting days  would be over! Hmm must ponder that thought and its execution. Debra is busy this weekend.....Follow the Fowl! Fran & Freda!

It has been fun being part of the Sizzix Scoreboard TM Blog Hop using new dies designed by the talented Eileen Hull. This is not my area of expertise so I have enjoyed bringing my love of fabric and trims to my designs with the dies. Seeing what other very talented designers and artists create with the same dies is truly amazing! The creative input from each one turns the same die into a totally unique project. This is the final challenge in the Blog Hop. Thanks to Eileen for putting this hop together!

This week's die challenge, the bow die. You can see the actual bow you can create with it at Sizzix complete with all the instructions. You can check out all the talented designers involved at blog hop headquarters, Eileen's blog!

I love dresses and since I am enjoying many date nights these days, dresses are a big part of my wardrobe. This is a whimsical take on the little back dress incorporating some daisy buttons and ribbon I had in my scrapbox. The picture below my design shows the actual die cut. Eileen sent samples already cut and I just used all the white ones in my project, the Bow & Beribboned Dress Up!

More from Spring Quilt Market tomorrow! Follow the JOY! Debra, CEO!

I returned from Spring Quilt Market in Minneapolis today. I almost missed my third and final plane of the day due to delay with second flight! My thanks to the Air Canada personnel for getting me there and the nice gentleman who let me go ahead. My luggage made it too, first off the plane!

Not only did I come back inspired from the show but I got to visit Creative Homearts magazine and club headquarters and stay with club Executive Director and Editor Julie Stephani. Carol Zengraff and Vivian Peritts also stayed and we had a great time ending each night with something I have never played, Hollywood Dominoes. (I did win :) Getting out the door in the morning was a challenge with all the chatter and wardrobe consultation but it was very fun!

The show as always is filled with crisp color, a fresh vibe of retro and flowery prints. New interesting products, fountains of fabrics and wonderful books. Vivian has a new book out with Suzanne McNeil and Design Originals. Her new book incorporates the Accu Quilt Go machine in fabulous wearable designs.

C&T Publishing has a new imprint Stash, smaller books with fresh and whimsical titles, Little Birds is adorable! The Sock animal books is too cute and the City Quilts contemporary and fresh. More from the show this week! Holiday tomorrow so taking the day off. Follow the JOY! Debra, CEO!

This week there is an abundance of travel going on, many artist and designer friends are in New York attending or exhibiting at the Surtex and National Stationery Shows. The end of the week is the Spring International Quilt Market tradeshow in Minneapolis which is also home of Creative Homearts Club and magazine that I write my Make it Green column for. I am so looking forward to visiting and seeing everyone! Exciting plans are in the works! Homearts goes live with 30 hour crafting extravaganzas in three cities in the fall. Editor Julie Stephani plus the columnists and crafting celebrities Drew, the Crochet Dude and Kathy Caron-Marillo, the Crafty Chica will be hosting the events. Open to Homearts members the weekends will be filled crafting fun, classes and goodies!

When I return I will have pics from both Quilt Market and my visit to Homearts!
Follow the JOY! Debra, CEO!

Fowl Friday! Freda & Fran here! Well there is feathery fallout on the homefront! The nest is on the market and the traffic coming through has all hands, wings on deck. Clean, clean, clean! Debra has us dusting, mopping & wearing our already very bony feet to the bare... We are slightly suspicious as the feather duster somewhat resembles the feathers of a close friend, Debra assures us they are synthetic, however I am skeptical, they look quite real to me. I am definitely more of a feather expert than she is! So everyday we clean, hoping someone takes pity on our plight and buys this place. We are not cut out for hard labor! Follow the Fowl! Fran & Freda!

It is another round of the Sizzix Scoreboard Blog Hop! These dies are the design of designer friend Eileen Hull! This week's new die is the cake, it is so cute and in the hands of several talented designer friends the ideas for this project are endless! Being a sewer and always looking for storage, I made mine a cute little sewing basket with a spool of thread for a cake stand.

To make my cake!
You will need:
6" fabric scrap for top
Double adhesive sheet
Double sided tape
3 yds of two co-ordinating ribbons
1/2 yd flower ribbon
18 flower appliques
3 pink, 3 black buttons
1 white spool of thread
1 quilter's pin
Beacon's Fabri-tac Glue
Scissors charm

1. Cake Top: Affix fabric to cake top with adhesive sheet. Trim scallops. Bend scallops down. Glue buttons together alternating colors and lining up holes. Glue to top of cake, insert charm over pin and pin into buttons.
2. Cake Sides: Cut strips of both ribbons 1" longer than cake sides. Overlap ribbon 1/2" at bottom and top of each section and glue in place alternating patterns. Score and bend sections. Affix three sections together into a circle. Affix to cake bottom.
3. Finishing cake: Glue flower ribbon around center of cake. Glue appliques on ribbon alternating sections. Put cake top on. Place on cake stand and enjoy!

Check out all of the talented designers in the blog hop! Eileen has all their links listed on her blog! Follow the JOY! Debra, CEO!