i like pie

i found this adorable little note one morning last week.

little rikrak really cracks me up ... always.

inspired ... i'm gonna leave more cutiepie notes for dearies to find. 

it's such a good feeling discovering them, isn't it?

found any cute notes around lately?

Pin It

the facebook resister

custom ornament work i did for the facebook company in 2009
 ......

are you on facebook, nicies?

(shhh...i'm not.)

so it's IPO time in facebook world today!

but this week marks a more personal milestone of sorts in the land of facebook-ing.

the fact is, as of this morning,  i'm down to just one other real live friend in the world, of my generation, who is also NOT on facebook.
we'll miss you here in the dark ages, lovely a. 

alas. :)

yes. i'm a facebook resister.

but i'm all for everyone else loving it.

& don't get me wrong: i love facebook. afterall , they commissioned me to handmake their Christmas party ornaments for them! i'm forever grateful! (gotta love huge corporations that appreciate handmade!) 

and facebook connects pretty much all of my beloved ones together. and you know how i love community building. 

i think i'm just a wee bit too private for it all.

i read yesterday that 2 out of every 5 north american adults are NOT on facebook. seems hard to believe there are that many of us out there. :)

anyone... ?
anyone... ?

how about you: facebook yay or nay?

& don't worry: i'll always *FRIEND* you here nicies. facebook or no facebook!

have a superfriendly weekend! 

Pin It

so i had a crush on a magical mannequin....

tvo images :makes you think & the today's special cast

..............

once upon a time i had a crush on a mannequin.

it was an early childhood kinda crush. 

on a mannequin who magically turned into a man when the store closed at night. 

did you love jeff from that tv classic "today's special" too?

i mean, c'mon - what was there not to love? 

he could sing and dance

boy - could he sing and dance!

and he was so kindly and all.

*sigh*

i confess this today because  TVO, a publicly-funded education broadcast station here in ontario (something of a provincial PBS) , is turning 40 this year. in my humble opinion, 40 fabulous years of the BEST in kids' educational entertainment (back in my day it was polka dot door and today's special!) , amazingly pioneering first-person documentaries, wonderful public affairs shows highlighting critical debates in our province, some of my favourite artistic and political interviews over the years, and oh so much more (like crushable MANnequin's!) ... most of which are now available in their fabulous online archive for free.

these days, i'd also recommended their fabulously fun tvokids webite, filled with over 160+ educational-ish free games for all ages ... lots of great creative arts ones....(and yay - they're  NOT violent! ) AND i love how TVO actively helps kids deal with real-life worries: interactive programs on school-yard bullying, spaces to THINK about and discuss the stresses of life and school for the under 12 age-group, the hi's and low's of pre-teen daily LIFE!

little rikrak and i give it a BIG thumbs up!

so happy birthday, TVO! you're wonderful!
here's to THOUGHTFUL programming for all ages.

what was your favourite kids show growing up?

any mannequin crushes?

...........

polka dot door

Pin It

virtual hollywood hair

 me with starlet hair: 

ashley olsen :: katie holmes :: jessica alba

christina hendricks :: anna paquin :: heidi klum

jennifer lopez :: zooey deschanel :: reese witherspoon

lady gaga :: sarah jessica parker :: jessica biel

.............

happy new week, cutiepies!

{warning: lots of good time-wasting fun ahead!}

well the oscars red carpet may have come & gone, but let's enjoy some glamour & fun ourselves, nicies!

how about this superfun virtual hollywood hair makeover ....

now ... i  don't even blow-dry my hair, let alone spend 3 hours on it, so i thought this an especially hilarious & fun excercise - cause hey - who doesn't want to try on zooey dechanel, christina hendricks, or claire danes well-coiffed hair for a minute?

granted, some looks fair better than others (alas... the lady gaga pink - not so much me, i'm afraid!) 

pop on over to instyle.com, just upload a photo (the one i had had too much hair showing, but you get the idea - here's the original) and play away!

try it and send us a link below to it! 

we wanna see!

and then remember how gorgeous you already are.

but it's fun to play dressup nonetheless, right?

tried any fun daring hairdos lately? 

you're always beautiful to me, sweeties!

Pin It

slumber party { part 12 } : what 3 question words can't you live without?

....................................

don't you just love a slumber party? comfy pjs, silly movies, telling your friends, old & new, your thoughts & crushes & dreams.... such fun! join us! you can catchup with some of our other slumber party fun here: and for today's party question: what 3 question words can't you live without?

....................................

image: petit coterie
....................................

who? what? when? where? why? how?

these are the 5 R's & 1 H of information gathering!
and i think, the foundation of learning about others, telling great stories, building great friendships, etc, etc.

now i know we're all wonderfully curious folks!
love that...

so let's pretend... for the rest of your life you could only ever ask 3 of the 6 questions. TO YOU, what are the most important three 5 R's & 1 H? i think it says a LOT about a person by the questions they choose to ask. i'll go first, nicies!

in any given situation...


Who? (i.e. Who was involved? )
What? {i.e. What happened (what's the story)?)
Where? ( i.e. Where did it take place? )
When? (i.e. When did it take place? )
Why? (i.e. Why did it happen? )
How? (i.e. How did it happen? )

................



how did something happen?
how is that possible?
how did they make that?
how can we do it? (i.e. let's make a plan!)
those intricate details i'm superkeen on!
i'm a planning, logistics. make-a-list kinda gal and i just love hows!
the how-tos in life = super for me!
................


image: feiocious

what happened?
what can i do to help?
what should we do next?
that's a great question in my mind.
i love details and i think this another gold-star question.
the what's give me perspective, info, data and more.
to me, it's an active, get things done kinda question!
thank heavens for what.

................

image: elevenelevendesign

why?
now at the outset, why seems like a scientific based kinda question, and heaven knows, i'm not very scientific. but i love motivation, where it comes from, and aiming to try and understand others' thinking.
so why... you're my question hero.

................

okay! so i've confessed!

there are my choices for top 3 question words!
now... let's snuggle into our cozy sleeping bags, open another bag of sour cream & onion chips, crank up the *debbie gibson*, giggle & whisper and hear yours! can't wait!

Pin It

slumber party {part 11} : what 3 names would you choose for yourself?

....................................

don't you just love a slumber party? comfy pjs, silly movies, telling your friends, old & new, your thoughts & crushes & dreams.... such fun! join us! you can catchup with some of our other slumber party fun here: and for today's party question: what 3 names would you love to have?

....................................
personalized note cards: hello my name is by naomilynn

.......................

happy april fools, nicies!
yay april!
in honour, i thought we'd slumber party about the prank of being someone you're not!
have you ever daydreamed you had another name?
what name would you choose for yourself, just for fun?
have you ever pretended you had a different name, you know,
faked it?

i'll go first!

....................................

MAGGIE: a quick peek into my childhood diaries and notebooks and you can fast see my early kindredness for the name maggie. many of my earliest writings as a young girl featured the main heroine *maggie*, and in childhood pretend play i recall often insisting others should call me this name. i still love it. to me it's charming and friendly and a good dose of wise and quick-witted. i campaigned to call our new-to-us cat maggie. but he was a male. alas.

....................................

KATE: kate was my pseudonym of choice thru junior high and high-school, and the name many folks have answered about me during one of those fun party games: *what name should i be if i wasn't me?* w... hich intregues me! my little friends and i spent a LOT of time pretending we were in *university* long before we really had ANY idea what that was and i was always kate, as i felt it would be the *perfect* university woman name. love that! & there were always fabulous *kates* in old storybooks, who took the world by storm in big and small ways. i still love that one, too!

....................................

HELEN: i was so lucky growing up surrounded by so many wonderful great-aunts and older women. so we had lots of great *older* generation names and folks to look up to, and names to love! one was helen. i still think this is a fabulous, strong, beautiful name. i love it for it's so-called *old-fashionedness.* i hope it'll be revived in the passion today's parents are showing for names from this era!

i went through a long (LONG!) phase of using this as my fake name when talking to strangers while traveling! ooh what a secret life! "pleased to meet you... i'm helen!" love it! i think i might just try that again on my errands this afternoon!

....................................

okay! so i've confessed!

there are my choices for top 3 names i'd choose for myself.
now... let's snuggle into our cozy sleeping bags, open another bag of sour cream & onion chips, crank up the *tiffany*, giggle & whisper and hear yours! can't wait!


ps: editor's note: i made the name frames up with some old photos *photoshopped* with new text. sorry - they are not items available anywhere for sale!

Pin It

slumber party revealed: followup to *what did you want to be when you were very young."

when i grow up print by askey

....................................

don't you just love a slumber party? comfy pjs, silly movies, telling your friends, old & new, your thoughts & crushes & dreams.... such fun! so i thought i'd invite you to the fun continuing series on the rikrak studio blog... the rikrak slumber party. here's a followup to the question i asked a while back: what did you want to be when you were very young?" thanks for your fun answers! be sure to visit all of the slumber party posts here and chime in!

....................................
oh i love you nicies! i'm so glad that, like me, you sweeties wanted to be fun, crazy things when you were young! let's be honest... i STILL kinda wanna be these things! best of all, so many of you responded with "WHO" you wanted to be! love it!

here are a few of your answers. you can find the original post here!

thanks to everyone who chimed in! loved reading them!

............................

string me along longed to be the original daisy duke from the dukes of hazzard!
me too, carol! love it!

..................................


alex keller mentioned, among other fun careers, being a "rockstar like Cher!" fabulous!
...............................



mchenwears dreamed of being a hockey player
(i hear she IS a superstar hockey player, by the way!)

................................

ZsbCreations wanted to be one of those folks "working in the ice cream shop with the magical spoons (now i know they're called scoops!)." ha! love it!

...............................

cinderlisa longed to be an astronaut. wouldn't that be wonderful!
that's one of my new ones of late!

......................



chakrapennywhistle dreamed of being a solid gold dancer.
you are, nicey! you are!

..................................



snazz dreamed of being one of the "Charlie's Angels." Me too, snazz. me too!

.................................

and zoetropa, like me, and like soooo many of you, wanted to be a private detective or sleuth, just like agatha christie, nancy drew and all of the other wonderful, brilliant sleuthy women out there!!

........................
thanks again, sweeties!
and tune in here again soon for another round of slumber party fun!

Pin It

the slumber party { part 3}: guilty pleasure film genres you love!

....................................

don't you just love a slumber party? comfy pjs, silly movies, telling your friends, old & new, your thoughts & crushes & dreams.... such fun! you can catchup with some of our other slumber party fun here: and for today's party question: what genre of film do you secretly love?

....................................

Lunastrella Super 8 Camera Print by johnwgolden

mr. rikrak & i love many of the same movies. our usual film fare is filled with inspiring documentaries (love those docs!), fabulous foreign films & the fantastic indie movies we both can't get enough of... but left to my own devices, i have some guilty-pleasure film genres i just love (shhh.. don't tell!)... my top 2 loves are:


heist movies!
i LOVE heists. from all eras. i just adore the great suspenseful, intricate plot twists, the revealing of a great caper & all that heisty, thieving fun!! the sting (robert redford AND paul newman: *swoon!*) , the usual suspects, ocean's 11.... that kinda craziness! love it!

...............................



& (shhhhh!)
romantic comedies.
i know. it's bad. but i love them. old ones i joyfully watch again and again. so many hilarious ones that i love from the 80s. ah, the blissful world of romantic comedies: where true love is able to conquer the most formidable of obstacles! annie hall, the princess bride, love actually, when harry met sally, to name a few faves!. ahhhh... i'm smitten!

.............................

okay! so i've confessed!

so there are my 2 not-so-secret guilty pleasure film genres.
now... let's snuggle into our cozy sleeping bags, open another bag of sour cream & onion chips,
turn on some cyndi lauper, giggle & whisper and hear yours!

Pin It