Surfing Saturday - 01/29/11

Surfing Saturday: a weekly round up of some of my favourite links on the interwebs.

Human Interest

Remember this blog about the kid who dressed as Scooby Doo's Daphne for Halloween?  Well his mom is still writing and is having a giveaway of some of the cool stuff she's received since her post went viral.  She's accepting comments on her blog as entries in the giveaway until Jan 31, and the last time I checked there were less than 100 comments - so those are some good odds!!  The Daphne blog and it's discussion led me to find My Princess Boy, which is a "nonfiction picture book about acceptance".  I love that there is so much attention being given to real people who are allowing their kids to just be kids!  More power to these mothers!

An amazing blog that started this month, Born This Way, is too adorable for words.  Cute photos from LGBT youth coupled with heartwarming stories about when the pictures were taken.  I get lost in this blog, and some of my favourite stories so far are Renee, LaMar, Ken, Joshua, and Dustin. They keep adding more daily, so there are many stories to choose from!


Arts and Crafts

For any playwrights out there, the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto is having an Emerging Playwrights' Competition.  It is open to Canadians, and be sure to read all the eligibility requirements to see if you are eligible to participate.  Submissions are due April 29, 2011.

My craft blog addiction this week is Craftgossip, which is constantly updated with all types of crafty/DIY things to do, sourced from tonnes of different bloggers.  Some of the hundreds of posts that have caught my eye are: Cinnamon Trolls (eek!), DIY mini-notebooks, and Printable Valentines.  There are tonnes of posts to choose from at Craftgossip - and it is updated frequently, so my new addiction is being fed constantly!


Deals

Finding a deal on gas nowadays is all but a pipe dream, but OntarioGasPrices.com makes finding the lowest price a little easier.  Here are the links for the Barrie, Elmvale, and Midland gas stations.  The prices are usually best in Elmvale, but I like to check all my options, just in case someone is selling it for less than $1/Litre.  I know - pipe dream, right?

On Fridays or Saturdays over at Smart Canucks, some amazing people go through your weekly grocery flyers and post their Hot Coupon Flyer Deals of the Week!  I used their superior deal-round-up skills last week to get TWO 1.77L jugs of Tide liquid laundry detergent for only $4.96+tax.  Each jug was $2.47!!  Smart Canucks rocks!  They also have Baby Deals for all the Mom's out there, and I love that they call it 'Baby Deals', because it makes me think they are selling babies...for cheap!!

Scrapbooking Open House

There is an Open House at The Cottage Scrapbook here in Midland today from 2pm - 4pm, and also on Saturday from 2pm - 4pm.  They are doing a "Make and Take" which means you'll learn a scrapbooking technique and make something in-store and take it home with you (all for free).  I'll be checking it out today and will post my Make and Take later this evening.

Shameless self promotion wise, this could be a great opportunity for you to go to the scrapbook store and vote for my layout!! (My layout is the one pictured, right). I'm just saying...

Find The Cottage Scrapbook store hours and location here.

UPDATE: I'm back from the open house and the Make and Take was awesome!  We made TWO Valentines Day cards (for free) and learned how to use scrapbooking watercolour paints (I had no idea there was such a thing!).  The open house is on again tomorrow (Sat Jan 29) from 2pm-4pm, so if you want to do something crafty this is a free and fun way to do it!

Here are the cards I made at the open house.  Not bad, eh?

Everything is a Photo Opportunity #2

This is a lovely photo taken right next door of an owl friend who came for day visits a few winters ago.  I was heavy into Harry Potter when this guy started stopping by, so I thought for sure I would be getting a letter from Hogwarts.  We haven't seen him yet this winter, but hopefully he comes back... with my invitation to wizarding school!

Winter Owl Hang Outs - January 2009

Games People Play

I'm a silly human, so sometimes I like to force new things onto the cat, with the hopes that she will actually take joy from the new thing and add it to her daily routine.  I'm silly, because clearly the cat only wants to play with what the cat wants to play with, when the cat wants to play with it!  Pesky human meddling in her life! Geez!

Gary: Seriously, you want me to do what?

I was at Dollarama yesterday and I saw this activity toy for cats.  Treats get locked into a ball that has treat sized holes, and the cat is supposed to play with the ball until the treats fall out.  They generally fall out one at a time for extended play.  Sounds simple right?

Treats that have fallen out of the ball.

I encouraged Gary to play with the ball.  I pushed it in front of her.  Nothing.  I shook it to indicate it contained treats.  No dice.  As she got more and more annoyed, she glared at me like I was a stupid human jerk.

Gary: I don't care about this.

Gary: Seriously!! Just give me the treats already.

I was not giving up!  I was going to force the cat to have fun, whether she liked it or not!  For the most part I just pushed around the ball until the treats came out.  Gary ate the treats and caught on to the idea that the treats and the ball were somehow related.  She had no desire to push the ball, though; that was something a silly human would want her to do.  Periodically she would sniff at the ball, but it only made her angrier.  I continued to push the ball around and more treats would fall out.  Gary would eat the treats and then resume her frustration.  Finally she put two and two together.

Gary: Okay ball, I don't like you and you don't like me...

Giving it a push.

Gary: Something better frickin' happen!

And then.... success:

A little later Gary decided that there was a much better way to get at the treats.  Leave the ball and the human out of it altogether!

Direct access = Smart Cat

Back in Bloom

We still have my Mother's Christmas Cactus, and it is doing exceptionally well.  In April of 2010 the Christmas Cactus successfully bloomed a year after almost dying.  Since then it has showed some wonderful new growth and it looks really happy hanging around here.

Just over a month ago, in early December, the Christmas Cactus began budding, but within a few days all the buds fell off.  I don't know enough about how plants function, but I'm guessing that it wanted to bloom in December (hence Christmas Cactus), but it just didn't have the power to do it yet.

This past week I started noticing buds again, and we had our first full bloom on January 21.  So who knows, maybe by Christmas 2011 it will be right on schedule!  As always with this amazingly tough, sixty-plus year old plant, I say: "way to go, buddy!"

The following are some of the Christmas Cactus flowers at various states of growth:

Baby bud.

Next size up.

Showing a little colour.

Getting long.

Full Bloom!