Saturday, October 30, 2010

At the Hop

BWS tips button
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Hi there! If you've found me from any of the hops and have decided to follow me, a huge welcome and some hot apple cider & cookies for you :) I hope you enjoy your visit and that you stick around! Things are going to get more exciting very soon!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Chillin' and Waitin'



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One of my fellow applicants has FINALLY received her visa today and will be landing as a Canadian resident tomorrow. You can read her blog here, which is full of important information regarding Canadian immigration.

I'm so overjoyed for her that I'm crying. Yes, right at this instant. It might sound silly, because I don't even know her in real life, or really outside Road to Canada, but she's been so fearful and worried (feelings shared by all of us current applicants) and I know that she's soaring sky-high right now.

I prayed so hard that all of us May & June applicants would get residency. So far, we all have, though I'll be the last one to land since I delayed in paying the RPRF (Right to Permanent Residence Fee). But I don't mind; I'm just chillin' and waitin', getting stuff taken care of and tying up the loose ends here.

No more uncertainty.
No more fear.
No more anxiety.
No more being separated from her husband.
A new chapter has begun, and freedom has been attained.


I can't wait until I can take my place among the landed residents.

However, I firmly believe that there was a reason I was supposed to be here for as long as I've been, and others have told me the same thing. Helping Mom take care of Dad when he was so ill... being with Dad in his final days and hours... keeping Mom motivated to get up every morning... It was very hard for me to understand my own strife at first, but after we lost Dad, I slowly began to see the big picture.

These last seventeen months have been an emotional roller coaster that I hope to never, ever experience again in my lifetime. But this roller coaster has made me into a better person, stronger than I would have ever imagined, and it's even strengthened my faith and my marriage.

Immigration isn't for the faint of heart.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Wee Bit of Me Wednesday



{one} have you ever crawled through a window?
Nope.

{two} what’s one subject that you wish you knew more about?
Math. I have ALWAYS hated it but I really ought to know more about it :P

{three} who’s your favorite villain?
Definitely Sylar from Heroes. He is SO evil but so delicious!! *drools*


{four} have you ever hit a jackpot on a slot machine?
Ha, nope. I've played slot machines before, in Niagara. My ex-boss won the jackpot on one though, go figure.

{five} what is your favorite disney movie?
Beauty and the Beast!!!!!

{six} if the whole world were listening, what would you say?
Click here to see what I would say.

{seven} if you could choose one song to describe you or your life, what would it be?


Then there's this more upbeat one... and whether you know the language or Google the English translation, you'll see why :)


{eight} your desk: messy or organized?
It stays pretty organized. I really hate for my workspace to be messy in any way. I'd share a pic, but I'm too lazy to take one ;)

{nine} have you ever had surgery?
Not yet, thank goodness. I have to get an errant wisdom tooth removed eventually, though :(

{ten} if you could have any animal as a pet, what would you have?
A gypsy cob pony.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

HOOOOOO ARE YOU?

NightOwlCrafting




HOOOO ARE YOU? HOO HOO, HOO HOO!
It's time for another week of questions! Don't forget to click above to go to the blog and do the questions yourself :)

1.What was your favorite meal growing up?
Burgers and fries and pizza! I STILL love these not-so-healthy meals!

2. What's your favorite month?
Hmm, that's pretty hard to answer. I really can't pick one, so here are my four faves.

October - Autumn, Canadian Thanksgiving, Halloween, and cozy nights.
November - Chilly days, cold nights, Thanksgiving excitement, Black Friday, Christmas decorating! (Yes I really plan on going Black Friday shopping, at least once, in Buffalo after I've gotten Canadian residency... I love Black Friday way too much!)
December - Christmas!
May (in Ontario, as it's way too hot in Virginia and I don't like spring here) - Spring really getting under way and everything blossoming.

3. What store is most represented in your wardrobe?
None. I shop at a wide variety of places. But I REALLY love Forever 21, H&M, and Old Navy, so there will probably be a lot more of that in my closet soon.

4. How many times do you go to the movie theater each month/year?
Here in Virginia, maybe once or twice if people invite me. In Canada, it was getting to be once or twice a month or so. We would usually only go on "Two Toonie Tuesdays" though ;) (that's the day when movie tickets are only $4, or two $2 coins aka toonies)

5. Fill in the blank- I've never been able to ___________________
Permanently stick to a forum and its community :( I just seem to disappear after a couple years. I seem to be doing pretty well with DSP and STS, though!


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Saturday, October 16, 2010

I Love Your Blog

I admit that I got a tad confused as to who, exactly, were my partners in this swap. I apologize to my partners for the confusion! I'm now including buttons and details to ALL FOURTEEN wonderful bloggers, from those who I sent links to and those who sent links to me! It's a blog party!!!



If you have never heard of Swap-Bot, I definitely recommend giving them a try. You can find all kinds of nice folks and fun swaps to take part in! There are even e-swaps, which I've been having a blast with! Right now there is a great swap called I Love Your Blog, and it's coordinated by Jexyland. Here I get to check out other people's awesome blogs, and they get to check out mine! Here are my partners and coordinator!



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Jex's blog is lovely! I love all the tutorials on her blog and her sweet personality in her posts. There is the cutest tutorial for a DIY pincushion and I have to try it!

Place this button on your website!

Only in Cambodia is a very interesting blog full of articles, memories, and photos of The blogger's love for the country reminds me of my love for Canada =) After reading a few posts, I feel as though I've actually been to Cambodia.

Memories Through Quilting
Vicki of Memories Through Quilting has a really nice blog here! I love seeing her quilts progress! Quilting is something that I would really like to get into one day, and I am inspired!


Keeping Up with the Joneses is a great blog (and VERY purple, yay!!) that shares bits and pieces of the blogger's life and what she does. Kimberly also shares giveaways as well as a GREAT booklet on scrapbooking tips, and more!

*She's Crafty She's Just my Type... By Amberingz*
Amber's blog is simply lovely! I love the whimsical chic projects she creates, including fanciful rings that I am in LOVE with! She has an Etsy shop here, go check it out. I love blogs with lots of pictures & projects and this is no exception :)

Create your own banner at mybannermaker.com!

Rachel is a homeschooling mom (and I have deep respect for homeschooling parents!!) who shares the trials and triumphs of this special job as well as motherhood. She's also a crafter, hooray!!


Amber is a SAHM who loves to read! She has good book reviews on her blog as well as tidbits about her life. She's also a writer and a gamer, which get two thumbs up from me! :)

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This is a fun, newer blog! Not only does it have purple in it, it has some neat projects that Cassandra has done. She also shares fascinating photos of life in general. I love the tiny pincushions she made with fabric and itty bitty coloured pails!


I love MissMuffincake! She's a vegan crafter and shares some great recipes, product reviews, and more. I can't wait to read more of her blog.


Kim's blog is full of cute!! I love the adorable plushies she makes, as well as all the fun and interesting tidbits about this vibrant redhead's life. She also posts some really cute finds & links, so don't miss out if you're a lover of all things kawaii!

* Erica Lee *
Erica's blog is a wonderful concoction of fashion and fashion advice, beauty, and inspiration. I love all of the deep posts that provoke thought and consideration in me, giving me a new perspective on relationships, life, creativity, and even my wardrobe!


Hayley's gorgeously pink blog is loaded with great giveaways, reviews, and all the bits 'n pieces of a mama bear's life.


A relatively new blog, Crea Bloempje666 is a lovely page full of creativity!! I really love the purses she's made for swaps and such, and she also has a Dutch webshop here that you just have to check out!!


This lovely blog focuses mainly on book reviews. These in-depth reviews are very helpful for those (including myself) considering a novel but unsure of whether to actually buy it or not! I love the simplistic but beautiful style of this blog.


How crafty...


Since I've been back in the US, unemployed while waiting for Canadian immigration to progress, I've kept busy by trying my hand at many different crafts. I began to grow surprised by how much I was capable of doing, even if it wasn't GREAT. It was making me gain self-esteem; my own island in the middle of a dark sea of severe anxiety, depression, and grief after my father's passing.

There's been polymer clay sculpting:


Beading (this isn't new to me, though):


Digital Scrapbooking:

(Pssst! Check out my digiscrapping blog here)

Hand-Sewing:

This is my Final Fantasy VII fan character, Marina.

The French Language (well that's not really a craft, but it's an art to me!):


Cooking (again, an art! I'll be posting this yummy creamed chicken & biscuits recipe next week):


And now... Crocheting!

Just in time for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I made this pink scarf. The pattern is called One-Ball Scarf and is on the Lion Brand website (www.lionbrand.com). For my very first project, it was SUPER easy to make. So easy, in fact, that I made a pair of handwarmers out of the same pattern.

I'm already getting requests to make these for friends! First I'm making a red pair for my mother, probably a pair for my mother in law, and pairs for my two best female friends. These are really snug, but not uncomfortably so. They're great for cool weather, but certainly not for a Canadian winter outdoors. Pahahaa

The more I can learn, it's like a whole new world of opportunities opens for me. What next? Sewing and knitting, to start! =)



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Friday, October 15, 2010

Vote For Me!

No, this isn't politics. In fact, it's BETTER than politics! Yeah!

I entered a contest on Makeup Deal of the Day to win a HUGE Sephora prize pack just by submitting makeup tips. And guess what? One of my tips made it to the finals! Wow!!

So I now need your help. My tip shows you how to make your eyes appear further apart with eyeshadow. I would LOVE YOU FOREVER if you would vote for it!!

http://www.makeupdealoftheday.com/Makeup-Contest_ep_42.html

Thank you so much, friends, and have a great Friday :)


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Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Wee Bit of Me Wednesday



{one} have you ever milked a cow or a goat?
Nope.

{two} what sound does your alarm make when it goes off in the morning?
We have it set to a classic rock radio station, which is the only station we can get in our basement apartment. I HATE clock alarms, they always end up scaring me to death.

{three} chocolate milk or hot chocolate?
It depends on the season. I prefer chocolate milk in hot weather and hot chocolate in cold weather.

{four} what is one of the quirkiest things about you?
Do you know Adam from the show Mythbusters? Yes? Well, there you go.

{five} are you more like your mom or your dad?
Definitely more like my mom. I even look like her and she's not my biological mother (genetically, she's my grandmother, but that's a story for another time).

{six} do you sleep with the tv on?
No way. I can't sleep if there's any noise except for white noise such as the furnace or our fan.

{seven} if you were a crayon, what color would you be?
Pink!

{eight} ross, joey, or chandler?
Definitely Chandler :D

{nine} do you play any musical instruments?
I can kinda sorta play piano.

{ten} what’s the worst thing you’ve ever cooked/baked?
I seem to be able to cook just about anything without destroying it. However, one Christmas season I made these cookies that were such a horrific pain in my butt that I threw the recipe out. LOL


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My husband paid my Right to Permanent Residence fee almost a week ago. We're much closer to this process being done, I think... thank God. We're looking at me landing as a resident of Canada before Christmas. I sure hope so. I missed Christmas 2009 and my first anniversary with my beloved Canuck, I sure don't want to miss either one this time. Ontario can dump six feet of snow on me, and I don't even care at this point. I just want to return to the place that I consider my home and be legally able to call it my home!

Residency means me being free to work.
Residency means having access to medical care that I can't even get in THIS country.
Residency means no more scary border crossings and the fear and anxiety that accompany them.
Residency means no more fear of my time with my husband being limited.
Residency means that we can begin our family soon.
Residency means that Mary is going to be happiest person in the world. Things may never be perfect, and sometimes they may never even be ideal, but they're still part of my life and I am learning to MAKE life happy even when it's not.

I had to leave Canada in May of 2009. We hadn't filed for my permanent residency yet. Once I returned to my family home in Virginia, things began occurring in rapid succession. My father, who suffered a massive stroke in 1997, fell very ill and was in hospital virtually all summer. My mother's vision began declining rapidly and I found myself helping her more and more with the little things. Days turned into weeks, months. Trevor and I got little done, but at last by early December, everything was ready to go.

Then my dad died a week before Christmas.

In February, the FBI contacted me to get fresh fingerprints, because the ones I had had done in mid-December were smudged. After I sent new prints and they were putting me in the system and confirming that I have no criminal record, Trevor lost his job. And he really couldn't apply as my sponsor without a job, and the economy was bad... So we didn't get the application sent out until late June.

So yeah, I am so ready for this to be over. I've been away from Canada and my husband for sixteen months. It's been an intensely emotional ride, one that I hope to never, ever experience again in my lifetime. All I want for Christmas is to be a Canadian permanent resident.

I'm a born and bred American. I was born in western New York and lived there for the first eight years of my life. Then I moved south. But when I went to Canada... it's like I was always meant to be there. It's the place where my life is just supposed to be. It's a gut feeling, a heart feeling, a soul feeling. It just felt right.

I hope you all have a great Wednesday! It's almost the weekend again, yahoo!

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Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Wee Bit of Me Wednesday



{one} grilled or fried?
The health nut side of me (which is, like, 10%) is yelling at me for saying I like fried food, but of course I do. In the end, I really do prefer grilled... I just LOVE the taste!

{two} if you could change one thing about where you live, without worrying about money, what would you change?
In our roomy basement apartment in Canada, I would divide the huge living room to create a baby nursery. I would also get rid of the cruddy wardrobe in our bedroom and build a nice closet, and build a hearth in the living room. If I could change where I'm at right now, in southwest Virginia with my mother, I would have to change EVERYTHING to make it sell-worthy :/

{three} what is your favorite time of day?
Evening for sure. I kick off the evening with a cup of coffee and flavoured creamer (hazelnut is my preference at this time of year), and watch the sun set while making dinner. If it's summer, I like to sit outside and just revel in the evening sunlight.

{four} what’s your favorite cereal?
I really love the chocolate Special K cereal!

{five} do you open your mouth when you put mascara on?
Nope!

{six} if you could make any fictional character come to life, which would it be?
This is a toughie! If you had asked me this twenty years ago, as a six year old child I would have probably said every talking animal in every show ever. Today... oh fine, I'll say Sylar from Heroes. He's so dang HOT!!! But I would take away his head-slicing power!

{seven} what are your favorite pizza toppings?
Oh man. Usually I'm a basic pepperoni/mushroom/extra cheese kind of girl, but I'm also soft for sweet banana pepper rings, or chicken, or sun-dried tomatoes and sweet onions, or bacon.

{eight} are you a heavy or a light sleeper?
Very light. I could wake up to ANYTHING, even to a strange smell (which is good in the case there's a fire). It means very fitful sleep unless I have some white noise going in the room, such as a fan or a heater.

{nine} what is your favorite board game?
I love Scrabble and Pictureka (or however it's spelled)!

{ten} what star/celebrity do most people say you look like?
I've heard Katy Perry. Must be the grin and the eyes and because I recently got bangs cut.


I'll be posting later because I've just gotten into crochet and I'm really excited! It's like a whole new world of stuff has been opened for me! I've been working on my very first scarf since yesterday and I can safely say that I'm in love with the craft.

AND!!! Trevor (my husband) should be paying the second half of the Permanent Residency payment sometime today. I'm so excited that I'm nervous. Yeah, I have issues with anxiety, worrying, and being high-strung. Hmm... gotta work on that. That means I will soon be a resident of Canada and will never have to worry about being separated from Trevor again, and my life really WILL be the sweet maple life!

Also, I believe I removed the stupid word verification thing from comments. I kept forgetting to do so!


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Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Hoo Are You? Week 2


It's time for another HOO ARE YOU set of weekly questions from the awesome Night Owl Crafting!
NightOwlCrafting




HOOOOOOOO ARE YOU? HOO HOO, HOO HOO... okay, I'm shutting up now.

1. If you could add one room to your house, what would it be?
A nice zen room would be nice, where I could have lots of plants and soothing colours and be able to do meditation. But a craft room would be just as nice... :P

2. How many pillows do you sleep with at night?
Two. And the colder they are, the better!

3. What is the best costume you've ever worn for Halloween?
In 2008, I was a faery pirate! I wore all black pirate clothing, including a head bandanna and a fancy hat, and I had black and white wings. I also had a sword and a pink and gold half-mask. My husband was a pirate too, but he didn't have cool wings, HA!

4. If you could erase one item off the face of the earth, what would it be?
Cruelty.

5. Where do you do your best thinking?
Anywhere in nature where it's quiet. And I don't mean quiet as in no nature sounds, but as in no distracting sounds of civilization.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Question Post & Twitter Hop


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* * *

I thought that I might offer up a reflective question every week (and hopefully I'll stick to it, I'm terrible at remembering things sometimes). Maybe I'll even give the weekly question a name! :)

Have you ever had to cut someone out of your life, why did you, and how did you feel about it?

My Answer:
I had to cut a long-time friend out of my life yesterday. She attacked me and it got pretty ugly. I'll admit that I lost my cool when I should have simply removed her from my life and gotten on with it, but I have issues with people who think/say wrong things about me. I don't know why. Maybe I just didn't expect her to say those things. But I feel MUCH better now that her poison is out of my life, and at least I know that I'm a good person.


Happy Sunday, friends :)

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