Under Construction - again

Hey blogosphere! I'm redoing this blog, yet again. Hopefully I can maintain it, but I make no promises - I haven't been able to blog regularly for years no matter how many times I redo it and try to rebrand it. But this time I'm not making promises and not really putting any restrictions on it, I'm just going to use it like a journal of sorts for myself. I hope to include posts about my crafty creations (digital scrapbooking, recipe card designing, crocheting, etc), my reading progress ( I love to read and usually will read 1-2 books per week unless I'm preoccupied with one of my other hobbies), and my latest obsession - geocaching.

Wish me luck!

-Monique.

May - more geocaching

Hey hey! So after finding 7 geocaches on our first day, we decided to go looking for a few more the very next day too. This time we went to another park in town called Ile Lebel, where we found 2 out of 3 that we went searching for.

One of our finds was a cool bird house with the logbook in a pill bottle or film case blocking the bird house "entrance". The second cache we found was another 3.5 star difficulty rating and took my brother and I quite a while of searching - under a bridge - to find it! It was the size of a small nut (think nuts and bolts kind of nut) and was stuck to a beam under the bridge with a magnet! Now imagine just how small that log book was rolled up INSIDE the "nut". No pics - but definitely a memorable find! The third was a DFI - Didn't Find It, which is sad when you spend a good 15 minutes combing the area for something. However I later found out that it was actually MIA - so at least it wasn't just me who couldn't see something that everyone else could.

And just to prove to you just how addicted I am to this geocaching thing - I found another cache today while walking to the dentist office! I had some time before my appointment so I stopped by a parking lot nearby that was supposed to have a cache hidden in a brick wall around the edge of the lot. Found it, logged it and got to my dental cleaning with plenty of time to spare!

May - Geocaching fun!

Geocaching! My newest obsession is geocaching - and I love it! I get to go for walks around town, in beautiful parks around town, beautiful provincial parks and wooded trails... I love it. I also love the hunting for treasure part. I love solving riddles and following clues to find things sometimes hidden in plain sight and sometimes hidden deep in the woods.

Today was my first geocaching adventure! We went to a beautiful park called Parc Des Chutes in St Urusle Quebec, I took a ton of photos and even found our first cache!

After we got back home my brother (who had joined us on our adventure) wanted to go find more near our home. So off we went! We found another 3 within walking distance of my home, all hidden in guard rails. After dinner we went out again, this time driving to a couple city parks where we found another 3! One of them was extremely difficult, we spent probably 15minutes walking around a maintenance shed trying to find the cache! "La maison des machines" is listed as a 3.5 in difficulty and it was pretty tricky to find, check it out:

See that silver bit next to the brick? That's the geocache! A little baggie covered in duck tape, with a magnet between the layers to keep it stuck to the metal piece and a little log page tucked inside the baggie. It was very satisfying to finally find this one!

We also found one in a tree at the base of a hill and another one was a metal electrical plate stuck with a magnet to the back of a power maintenance cabinet. The log book was taped to the back of the plate along with the magnet keeping it in it's little hiding place.

And BONUS: I got my first Geocaching Souvenir:



Seven geocaches in one day I think I've got the Geocaching bug!

Interested? Just join Geocaching.com for free, download their free app on your smart phone and off you go! My fave Android phone app for caching is c:geo - it's free and works great - as long as you aren't under trees, as soon as you're under a tree you loose the satellites. But I find any app on my phone looses the satellites when under trees. So if I keep doing this caching thing I might be asking Santa for a small handheld GPS. ;)

May - A scrapping comeback!

I've just recently gotten back into scrapping actual layouts after breaking for 2 yrs. So here's what I've been up to lately... remember a lot of these photos are older ones that I'm just getting around to scrapping.

This week I focused on the Easter pics waiting to be scrapbooked:

I also did a few pages using older birthday, fall and Christmas photos:

For credit info click on images to be taken to the Sweet Shoppe Gallery where the kits, templates and fonts used will be listed.

March - Crochet

During my DD's March Break we visited family in North Bay and I had a chance to get some more crocheting done on the road and while there.

On the road I made a floppy pink beret for my DD, she loves it even though it's super floppy and silly looking (IMO).

I also made a super cute, absolutely adorable baby set for my future niece... I absolutely love the Red Heart yarn I used for this set and the pattern worked up so quickly and easily - I love it! <3 a="" and="" are="" ava="" booties="" cloche="" from="" hat="" href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/LittleBirdieShoppe" target="_blank" the="">Little Birdie Secrets etsy shoppe

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I also started on a blanket for myself using some beautiful chunky yarn I found in my MIL's yarn stash ;)

February - Crochet

In February I finished 2 more baby blankets, one large one and a smaller granny square type blanket both for my sister who is expecting her first little girl end of June. I went with a very wild and colourful main yarn with a white stripe for the large blanket and a mix of those plus some purple for the smaller one. The smaller blanket is my first attempt at the classic granny square pattern. I was very surprised at how quickly and easily it worked up. Definitely going to have to make more of these in the future!

January - crochet

This month I got some crocheting done for myself and for a friend of mine having a baby in the Spring! I made myself a beautiful little frosty scarf for myself:

The blanket I made for my friend is done in camo with a brown stripe, since her hubby is in my Army I thought it was perfect for her coming baby boy.