Double whammy!!!

Alllllll riiiiiiiiiiiiight!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This has been a spectacular week in the scrap department. First of all, the announcement was made yesterday that I have landed a spot on the Kindred Creations Guest DT for the months of October to December (Thanksgiving through Christmas...how awesome is that?!)

And THEN...I just officially found out that I've also made the Scrapbooking Cafe Design Team!!! Holy wow, this has been a wonderful ending to follow yet another 13-hour workday!!! Except of course that I got the call yesterday and since had to wait till this morning to hear the message...but I can't really whine about anything right now, can I?

Last weekend the new Scrapbooking Cafe in Gatineau finally opened and of course I was there. I have to admit I got the impression from the owners I'd already made the team but I never speak before anything is official. I think it was pretty cool that the announcement was made about both DT's on the same day. My scrapping friend Lynne also made the Scrapbooking Cafe team so we'll be on it together...I'm psyched! I think we both are!!!

With these new positions, plus picking up shifts with my casual job, plus being in the church choir, it does appear that I'm taking on a lot all at once. But really, it isn't any more scrapping than I'd already be doing...only now it'll be with kits, and while my LO's wait for me to sort them into albums, they'll be on the LSS walls instead of in a pile on my sewing desk. I think I can do this!

I think I'll try and put together a last-minute birthday card today for a party this afternoon...and I'll probably end up posting my first October challenge on KC tonight at midnight...can you tell I'm excited?!

Here's those Trading Pages pages I was putting together the other week. In an interesting coincidence, the girl I made these for is the OTHER KC Guest designer for October-December!

Slow...down...you're gonna crash...!!!

Well, it's been another of those weeks, where after lots of nothing, everything happens all at once.

MONDAY I had training for my new casual job.
TUESDAY I had more training for my new casual job.
WEDNESDAY I went to my regular job, THEN for my first practice shift at the casual one, 12 hours of work total with 45 minutes in between jobs, mostly spent driving and eating at the same time. But the evening was much more relaxed than the morning...and I also discovered that the group homes in the new company do...of all things you could imagine...SCRAPBOOKING!!!!! I got to spend an hour on Wednesday night looking through the group home scrapbooks and helping them re-organize their supplies. Oh yeahhhhhh...I picked the right place to work for!!!
THURSDAY night I had choir practice.
FRIDAY night was mostly spent making Lightning McQueen out of 2 Cherry Chip cake mixes and 3 cans of icing.



SATURDAY we had Antonio's birthday party...better explained in pictures.












I hope it doesn't make me a lousy mom that I'm not sad that my little boy is growing up. I'm as excited as he is that he's 4!!! I love to see him getting better at things, learning how to do stuff by himself, coming up with the funniest comments...I think it's the coolest thing ever. And when his daycare teacher came to the party on Saturday, he immediately switched to French. It was so cool! I can't ever get him speaking French around here!

SUNDAY I sang in the choir for the first *full* time. Last week was supposed to be my first, but DH had somewhere to be and I had to spend morning practice hour chasing after Tones. Thank goodness people understand what it's like to have a little boy.

It was a nice lazy afternoon for Tones to play with his new stuff and I actually scrapped 2 pages! This evening DH went out again and I even got started on a 3rd!

Random ramblingzzz.....

This evening DH was watching MuchMoreMusic's "Back In..." and the year was 1998. That's the year we were married. And now it's a "Back In". Craaaaaaazy stuff!!!! Seriously...I joke all the time about looking young for my age, but I'm really not THAT old...am I?

I seem to have gotten over my scrappers' block. I started my Trading Pages pages earlier this week and am really happy with how the first one is coming together. Funny how scrapping other peoples' pictures always gets the creativity flowing twice as fast. Some of my favourite LO's have been for Trading Pages! I think I just have to accept that not pumping out 5 LO's a week and actually not running out of stash before I can buy more does not mean I've lost my mojo.

One more week till Antonio's birthday party! I think we've finished getting his presents...except for whatever we get with the money my parents sent us. His DVD player bit the dust last week so he could use a new one, but we've also been eyeing this loft bed from Ikea...he really could use the extra space.

I started choir practice lastnight with the church. It really feels good to be singing again. I just don't feel spiritually fulfilled unless I'm doing something musical. The people were friendly, the music was just challenging enough, the parking situation left much to be desired but I can't complain...I arrived early with a book in my purse. Such are the habits I've adapted to deal with my parking aversion.

Anyway I'm forcing myself to stay up late so I don't wake up at 3 a.m. again, but in the absence of further creative thought, here's some pictures. This is DS last weekend at the French second-run theatre when we saw Cars for the 3rd time (actually, it was "Les Bagnoles"):



We also went to the Museum of Science & Technology again. The Member stickers were supposed to be for the 3 of us, but DS wanted to bring his 2 new friends instead:



Did I ever mention he likes cars?

Still scrapped out....

Well, I didn't make the Scenic Route team. Big surprise there...LOL. It was more just one of those I'm-gonna-kick-my-own-butt-if-I-don't-at-least-submit-something issues. But there is still hope for the Scrapbooking Cafe DT call. They won't be announcing that till later this month. I just hope they got my e-mail ok.

Which makes this next thing sort of uncomfortable to admit...but I have total scrapper's block right now. It's Saturday night, Antonio's out like a light, and Don just took off with a friend to see a late show. I should be scrapping, but I'm sitting here updating my blog. Why don't I feel like scrapping???!!! Sheesh, I don't even have the excuse of no motivating pictures anymore, I just got pictures from my KC Trading Pages partner today and I have to get those done this month. I can't decide if it would be better to scrap and get the momentum going again, or take a few days' break and give myself a chance to miss it a little.

One thing is I can't stand starting something if I can't finish it. And right now I have the stash, I have the pictures, I have some ideas...but I haven't come up with any definite sketches yet. Sometimes that's what takes the longest. And I usually find my best pages are the ones where somewhere in the middle of figuring out sketches I get a creative spark, and scrap like crazy from start to finish while the spark's still fresh. The big problem is I can't deal with being interrupted in the middle of scrap mode. I'm afraid by the time I get the spark Don will be 10 minutes from walking in the door.

I think I'm going to go make some sketches and see what happens.

Update: Looks like I managed to scrap tonight after all. Thanks to Canadian Scrapbooker magazine and the inspirational pages of a scrapper named Manon Dufour, I found some mojo and finished this one off: