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2011 is off to a fantastic start

2011-01-11T06:54:00.003-05:00

And I mean that seriously. I just found out yesterday that as of January 23rd I am going to full-time nights at work, in my regular house, for the next year, and I couldn't be happier. Perhaps it seems anti-climactic considering how excited my cryptic Facebook update was yesterday, a level of celebration women normally reserve for announcing their newly discovered pregnancy or recent lottery win, but this is a big change for me in the right direction. Granted I was already happy at work with my part-time rotation and frequent on-call shiftwork, but this will bring consistency into my life, not to mention weekends. I love my regular house and am happy that for the next year my shifts will be all there. Except for the days I get moved (and I'm sure it'll happen. That's what I get for being feeding tube and diabetic trained).

So now the biggest challenge is re-booking my vacation time with only 2 months before Disneyworld. Hopefully they'll be able to work something for me, considering I had my original vacation time booked way in advance, but my hours are a wee bit different now and I'll need more of them off. But like Don always says, this is a high class problem. If my new awesome job conflicting with my Disneyworld vacation is the biggest of my worries, I really have nothing to complain about in the grand scheme.

Many scrapbookers adopt a new "word of the year" in January. I like to see where the year goes before choosing a "theme" word...some of mine have been Create, Inspire, Balance and Harmony. Last year's was definitely Gratitude...and I would like to start out this year with a lot of it. I have been praying about this position ever since I heard the regular person was thinking about leaving, but didn't want to make it one of those "give me what I want" prayers. I knew I would be a great fit but am always uncomfortable acknowledging that I'm the best at anything even when I actually might be...it feels like setting myself up to be proven a phony. So I prayed that things would unfold they way they're supposed to and for no anxiety regardless of what happens. It's just so nice when God's plan works out they way you were hoping your own would.

If anyone is out there, thanks for listening and letting me share some of my joy with you. Have a blessed 2011 and may your hopes and wishes be made possible in it.

Christmas Memories: let's wrap up the old millenium

2010-12-14T11:51:00.003-05:00

96: Christmas Eve church service

97: The year I met Don

98: First Christmas as a married couple

99: I never did find that picture I was looking for....

Christmas Memories...catching up on the early 90s

2010-12-10T17:30:00.004-05:00

Yep, missed a few days again. Yep, night shifts.

So today I will cover 3 years at once. Though there is no shortage of memories, they were all of the teenage variety and involve ex-boyfriends and other such drama which I didn't really wish to include in a decade-spanning Christmas memory album. Which created a nice opportunity to do a few of those fun-to-make design-based pages where the focus is more on the style and doesn't require much journalling if any.

1993. Here's my brother and me, who had enjoyed for many years getting up in the middle of the night to see what Santa had left. This year was no different, nor was getting up early on Christmas morning, but it was around this year that it actually started making me tired. As far as I can recall. I do know this was the first year I consciously opted to take an afternoon nap on Christmas day. I guess the drive to Toronto had been helpful in that respect, when we were younger.

I'm happy with how this one came together so easily yet so effectively. It was a happier year all round, but most of the festivities took place at my ex-boyfriend's house (where this picture was taken) so for future-friendliness I made it simple.

1995 was a peaceful Christmas. My mum and I had started going to church shortly before, and had joined the choir, and the spiritual inspiration was still young and fresh in my heart after years of teenage blues. Maybe that's why this page is mostly blue. I love how the sun shines through the window...makes you wanna sing Joy To The World or something. Actually, this was the only picture I had of Christmas 1995. But I still like it.

Christmas Memories: 1992

2010-12-07T00:46:00.003-05:00

I love using my title as my journalling.

I also love not having an 80s haircut anymore.

Christmas Memories: 1991

2010-12-05T21:48:00.002-05:00

Grade 8. My family had this tradition for a few years of eating dinner out on Christmas Eve, and in 1991 they booked us at an overpriced and overrated Chinese buffet because there was karaoke there, and I liked to sing. It would have been my first time at karaoke, and then when Christmas Eve rolled around I got a cold and had totally lost my voice. Very heartbreaking for a 14-year-old, made worse by having iceberg lettuce and saltines for dinner, which appeared to my then discriminating tastes as the only edible-looking food the buffet had to offer.

Christmas Day was enjoyable enough, with a few surprise gifts and a lot of delicious goodies. There were a few pictures, but my cold had left me looking pretty lousy in all of them, to say nothing of the hideous 80s haircut I was still growing out.

So I opted for a Christmas tree/gift shot, colour-reversed on the computer for effect, and a story that happened a few days before Christmas when we were picking up my dad from the airport. Though my mum might think otherwise, my memories of that night are actually good in hindsight and don't remind me of how crummy I felt on Christmas Eve, so that's what I chose to journal for 1991. There's always a good way to look back on things.

Christmas Memories: 1990

2010-12-04T19:40:00.002-05:00

One of my favourite pages in this entire album. The colours and patterns aren't exactly traditional for Christmas, yet in every way remind me of this exact day. It has a feel very different from the rest of the pages but fits in perfectly somehow.

After a lovely Saturday out with my favourite boy, we're going to snuggle in and watch Return of the Jedi in our PJ's. Sweet dreams!

Christmas Memories: 1989

2010-12-03T18:33:00.003-05:00

This was our first Christmas in BC. It was also my year as the crazy cat girl, and most of my gifts were cat-related...stuffed kitties, porcelain kitties, a kitty calendar, and various other things with kitties on them. I believe the paper is from My Mind's Eye, and the rub-ons from Fancy Pants.

I'm working on a new scrappy project right now called December Daily from which the inspiration was again taken from Ali Edwards' blog via a Skrap N' Chat link. It's been longer than I can remember since I scrapped and Christmas always puts me in the mood again. Right now I'm just focusing on getting pictures and journalling though, I'll put it all together in January sometime. My goal is to have each day represent a different activity, theme or idea. Doing the Week In The Life project back in April really inspired me to make the most of my days and my hope is this December Daily will do the same...with a festive twist.

Here's how it goes so far:

December 1: Trimming the tree

December 2: Our sent gifts have arrived safely in BC

December 3: Snow!

Christmas Memories: 1988

2010-12-02T16:56:00.003-05:00

And once again, we have pictures. The title on this page was fun to make, though I don't remember exactly how I did it. I do know it involved a Xyron, a stencil, and different coloured foil leafing. And do I spy some Basic Grey Blitzen scraps? Looks like I had some left after all! I think this was also one of the first pages I ever used metallic filigree stickers on. Definitely a fave of mine.

Christmas Memories: 1986-1987

2010-12-01T17:48:00.004-05:00

This is the only 2-page spread in this album and probably always will be, as the album's up-to-date and it's hard to plan 2-page spreads over the course of a year. It's also the only layout with no actual photos. Now if I'm going to do a photo-less layout there needs to be a good reason explained in the journalling, and the short answer is there were no pictures of '86 or '87. The longer answer is that my dad got a video camera in 1986 and the 2-4 year gap in photos in my family history is replaced by 2-4 years of classic home videos, which still remain on VHS and I haven't figured out how to convert into any other format yet.

These pages use my second favourite Basic Grey Christmas paper line, Figgy Pudding. (my #1 fave Christmas paper line is Basic Grey Blitzen, their first Christmas line, which I pretty much had used up by the time this album was started). My other fave part of these 2 pages is the date snaps (top corners on both ends, sort of cut off on this scan). There were a ton of these on clearance and I snagged up the dates I needed with this page already in mind.

Christmas Memories: 1985

2010-11-29T15:43:00.003-05:00

Looks like I missed a day...working nights does that to ya sometimes. It'll all even out though, because tomorrow's a 2-pager.

Anyway, here's 1985, which has suddenly made me realize that up to this point every page has included at least one picture of actual Christmas Day. This was all I could find from 1985, but I like these pics. That pink dress was one of my favourites, though my mum never really put me in it that often. I never wore much little girl pink back then. The hair makes me think this must have been my Annie-fan days.

Christmas Memories: 1984

2010-11-27T18:04:00.004-05:00

Yay for the 80's! I still remember this Christmas and all those toys. And getting up at 5 in the morning when it was still dark.

Christmas Memories: 1983

2010-11-26T19:24:00.002-05:00

In the process of making this album, it was apparent there were some years with lots of pictures and not a lot of memories (the 70's), or lots of memories and no pictures ('86 and '87). Then you get 1983, a year where I had ample family pics full of memories, and then after inheriting most of my Gran & Gramps's old photos...even more. This is an example of a Christmas where good memories were kept fresh by having lots of pictures. Which, of course, makes scrapbooking them a bit of a challenge...I wanted to include as many pictures as I could, and also a lot of journalling, since I do have very specific memories of that exact day. So I did my best to incorporate both here. These are my favourite kind of pages to make.

Christmas Memories: 1982

2010-11-25T20:41:00.003-05:00

These last 2 pages were from the years we actually started unwrapping our own gifts at home before driving down to Toronto, which was by the way 2 hours from where we lived at the time. Or at least when my parents started taking pictures at home first. It's interesting how your memories are shaped (and maintained) by what was actually captured on camera, especially when you're someone who loves looking through photo albums. That's the main reason I started scrapbooking.

Christmas Memories: 1981

2010-11-24T16:56:00.003-05:00

Christmas pages are my favourite to scrapbook...there is just so much beautiful paper out there! The papers on this page and the last are both from Daisy D's...I just love the vintage wrapping paper look. It's so perfect for these old Christmas photos.

Christmas Memories: 1980

2010-11-23T15:23:00.004-05:00

This picture is actually a scanned and enlarged Polaroid. You can barely make out my month-old baby brother on the corner of the couch. But once again we're in Toronto with family...and is that the same outfit I had on in last year's Christmas pictures? It always took me a while to grow out of (or into) things. Happy Tuesday!

Christmas Memories: 1979

2010-11-22T13:52:00.002-05:00

Good morning! I'm enjoying my morning (1:53 in the afternoon) cup o'tea and a late breakfast while thinking about Christmas. Yes, I worked nights this weekend.

Today we move along to 1979. I was just over 1 1/2 and still an only child, and once again we celebrated in Toronto with all the family. I still had baby hair. It never grew all that quickly.

Both this page and yesterday's were created with Karen Foster Christmas papers which I received in a kit from the scrapbook store I designed for in 2006. These 2 were the first ones I made for the album, though by no means did it get completed in total chronological order It mostly went by what years I had pictures for at the time.

I actually did my first Christmas baking of the year yesterday! Gingerbread cookies, of course. My special recipe. December is getting closer!

Christmas Memories: 1978

2010-11-21T14:21:00.003-05:00

So like I mentioned, this year I'm counting down to Christmas with pages from my all-Christmas album. It begins in 1978...the first Christmas I had pictures of, at least that I could pin a year to...as it was my first Christmas ever. This began the tradition of celebrating Christmas day in Toronto with my grandparents, cousins, and other extended family. Surrounded by loving family...what could be better?

Attitude and Gratitude

2010-11-15T17:56:00.006-05:00

It's been a while. My apologies for my flaky online presence...once I get momentum with something, that tends to be all I do for the next little while, whether it be a streak of scrapbook pages, Sculpey figures with my boy, or renovating all the closets. I'm sure some of you know the feeling!

I noticed something yesterday that I wanted to mention while it was still with me. After talking with people in the last couple days it's really become clear that you reap what you sow with your attitude. Cynical people will tell you not to trust this person or that, or not to go out of your way for anyone because you will never be appreciated and any extra efforts will become expectations. The thing is, that has not been my experience. Gratitude is important to me and I do my best to always show it, for things large and small. In return I have also been aware of it when it is directed to me, in word or in action, even in situations where cynics have told me I would not find it.

I don't stir things up. Sure, my aversion to competition and confrontation is perhaps extreme in many ways and admittedly has caused me anxiety in certain situations, but it also makes for a more positive world around me, one with more trust and less tension. It basically creates a world where I don't have to use things I'm not good at, like assertiveness, as often.

You can't change everything, but you can control your attitude, and that's often enough to effect change. So keep it positive.

Thanks for listening. I hope to try something new on my blog this year as Christmas gets closer (I wrote it in my daytimer so the chances of me getting it done are better!) I love Christmas pages...my favourite album to look through is my all-Christmas album. So I would like to feature it here, one page per day, starting November 21st. Come see it, if you like!

Another one from the vault

2010-09-03T07:56:00.004-04:00

I've been following the challenges at Scrap Yourself since the site began earlier this year, and have gotten so many wonderful ideas! Regrettably I didn't get to put many of them into action yet, but as there aren't really any time restraints on them, I may still yet...hopefully even later this month!

The latest challenge (by a scrapper who happens to share my first name) was called Guilty Pleasures, and was about the artist's addiction to paranormal romance novels such as the Twilight series. I also enjoyed those books, though I must say I do have my own favourites. Speaking of which...this challenge reminds me a lot of a layout I have from three years ago. In a way this feels like "cheating" since it's an oldie, but then again, there really are no rules over at Scrap Yourself, just pure inspiration. And this was such a cool coincidence I just had to drag it out again.

This was one of 4 layouts inspired by a Making Memories class at CKC Buffalo that I can't remember the name of, but really enjoyed. I didn't even give this one all that much thought at the time, since the others required a bit more detail. I had this stock photo of me reading one of my beloved LOTR books and pretty much just plugged it into the right place, gave it a title and some journalling, and called it a day. And 3 years later I come across a layout of the same name, also about favourite books...and it seemed the perfect opportunity to take another look at this one again! Thank you Scrap Yourself for your inspiration, not just in creating layouts but in reminiscing through old ones with new perspectives. It's all about the memories.

Septemberific!

2010-09-02T10:48:00.009-04:00

I really did wanna blog more in August, but I forgot that August always throws me for a loop. But that's ok...because it's September!!!!! My favourite month of all. There's so many things I love about September, and I'd like to incorporate them into Lisa's Skrap N' Chat blog challenge for this month....

The Top Ten Reasons I Love September.
(Note: the inspiration for this blog came faster than the scrap mojo, so I don't have any new layouts to share. So instead, this one will be illustrated with a collection of old layouts. Hope ya don't mind).

10. August is over. As I mentioned earlier, August is not my month of choice. Work gets busier, the Boy and I get more stir crazy, and my rational decision-making ability suffers (oh, suuuuure I can do night shifts during the week...I'll just sleep when Don gets home!) I've learned not to make any big decisions in August. My hair still hasn't grown back since last year.

9. It's a short month. Time goes faster, and you enjoy it more. I like short things, being one myself!

8. Delicious fall flavours. My funky friend out west actually just blogged about why she also loves September (great minds think alike...and fools seldom differ!) and she reminded me of a few things I'd forgotten about. I'm a big fan of pumpkin pie latte myself!

7. Historical significance. I think September was dampened for all of us about 9 years ago, so this may sound strange...but the date September 11th brings back in my mind a different year and a different memory. It was actually the date of me & my high school boyfriend's anniversary, and I had long decided before adulthood that September was my favourite month because of September 11, 1994. Unfortunately that person passed away in an accident in 1997, and though we had already broken up, I still continued to hold September the 11th close to me.

6. New beginnings. Let's take it back to the lighter side again. Though January is the first month of the year, September really feels like the month where everything starts up again, like school. As a kid I didn't care for school, yet September was the month it was the most enjoyable. All your supplies were new and shiny and you hadn't had a chance to get sick of your classes or scared of your teachers yet. It was actually a welcome change. And as someone with a school-age child...I must say it's a relief to have my days back again (love ya Tonesy!)

5. Fall colours. Though the frigid dead of winter and the stagnant heat of summer always make me miss the west coast, one season the Ottawa area has mastery over is fall. There are so many gorgeous kinds of trees out here and you would not believe the colours they turn once the temperature drops overnight from 35 to 10. And it all begins in September.

4. The perfect weather. Everywhere I've lived, September is my comfortable month. Don tells me I only have about a 4 degree range of comfortable temperature, and whether or not this is true, September has it right. It begins with in summer clothes, but for comfort, not necessity. And out here, it generally ends in longsleeves with or without a light jacket. The air always seems a little bit fresher when the temperature is on its way down.

3. The beginning of the holiday season. September is the month of looking forward to things. Stores start stocking Halloween and Christmas items, and though some complain about this, I just take the feeling of festivity from it and enjoy. We've got Halloween coming up in October, Thanksgiving in October AND November if you're lucky enough to post on an internet forum with both Canadians and Americans and join in the spirit of gratitude twice over, Remembrance Day in November, and of course Christmas in December. So many holidays all in a row...and for some of us, September itself holds more special days to to celebrate!

2. My one and only child was born in September. He was due on the 27th, and like about half our family, we figured he'd come in October. But 9 days early, Antonio made his arrival as the first September birthday in our family! And one of my favourite Mom duties is the maker of cake and the planner of parties. I often start fantasizing about birthday cake ideas as early in the year as I start fantasizing about Halloween costumes! I had already long established September as my favourite month, but Antonio being born in it was the icing on the cake.

1. September 2, 1997. Between 1994 and 2002, aside from the sensory and aesthetic reasons, there was one more big event that re-affirmed September as the best month ever. It was the first day of my second year of music college and I had already lost my purse. There was only one other student in the hall of the music wing at 9 a.m. who I could ask to borrow a pen and paper to make a "missing" sign. This guy's name was Don, and this was the beginning of how my life got to be what it is today. We were dating 2 weeks later, married 9 months later, and are still together. I can't even begin to describe how awesome he has made my life.

And it all happened in September.

Lisa's Blog Challenge: "No Epiphany"

2010-08-02T07:17:00.006-04:00

Had to try out the new blog challenge at Skrap N' Chat...I don't keep this thing as active as I should!

So the deal was to blog about a FIRST...and one of her suggestions was the first time you looked at your newborn child's face. This one really stuck out for me, because I've often marveled at how my experience of this differs from every other mom I've heard the story from. I don't feel right making a new blog post without a layout, so I scrapped this one which had been in the back of my mind for weeks anyway, and seems to go with the theme I chose.

I'll warn you in advance, this is long-ish and a bit cathartic. If you still wanna stay, thanks again for listening :)

Other mothers said it's like magic. The moment you see your first child, everything just clicks into place. The mothering instinct switches on, and everything you once thought you were disappears into the shadow of the little miracle before you. And I had wanted a baby so much. I had looked forward to everything about pregnancy, even the unpleasant parts. My abundancy of free time had kept me a childish gamer geek and a TV addict...I looked forward to the distraction of a baby to shape me into the grownup I needed to be.

And then it happened...the melting away of the tension as I had my spinal...the strange sensation of the scalpel...the sarcastic (or so I thought) expression of my husband's voice asking if newborns were supposed to be "that big"...the muffled but unmistakeable crying sounds, and the release of a great weight from within...Don's voice again whispering "it's a boy! we have a son!", then not wanting to release him from his arms as he placed Antonio on my chest, still on the operating table...and there he was. And what did I feel? His heaviness, and the shaking of my body as it reacted to the major surgery. I saw him, already bigger than I'd planned for...and I waited. I waited for the magic. But I remained exactly the same as I always had been. There was no epiphany, no harmonious inner discovery...the only realization that hit home there and then was how astonishingly unchanged I felt, and how inadequate as I was that I could hope to parent this ten-pound stranger that somehow I had carried inside me for almost 9 months, yet felt I was really only meeting for the very first time. Drugged as I was, I even recall anxiety of whether or not he'd be happy with who he'd wound up with as a mother. I had just mastered the art of caring for him on the inside, but now that he was out...I had no clue.

Yet I felt that because of this supposed "motherhood epiphany" that I'd be expected to know everything. Because that's what mothers do. The whole first month I was afraid to ask for help, and reveal that I was incompetent. Every time people asked me about my son I gave the answers I thought they were looking for, though I was really thinking "How should I know? I've only known him a few days more than you have." Each night, each week, each month was a milestone for one extra moment I hadn't accidentally broken him.

Motherhood has been an experience of learning and growth for me, with me never really believing I was that good at it. I tend to envision myself more like my son's fun big sister, and with my youthful personality and appearance, I often believe others also see that.

If anything, my epiphany came a couple weeks ago, 2 nights before I was scheduled to fly out to BC to pick Antonio up after a 2-week stay with his grandparents. He had never been away for this long before, but I'd been happy he would get the chance to spend summer with his extended family, and aside from the valuable life experience it would be for him, it would also be a much-needed break from the parenting business for my husband and I. Or so I thought. Surely, Antonio and I would have driven each other crazy within the first week of summer holiday being home together all day long, history has proven that. But not having him at all...that was strange. I broke down in tears while I was alone at work, missing my son. For someone who has always appreciated the value of time alone, I had never felt so lonely. And finally I knew, without a doubt, that I really was a mom and not just some girl with a kid to look after. The life experience proved to be for us both. Antonio gained independence, and I learned that I was a mom all along.

That was a first.

Scrapbooking on a larger scale

2010-07-18T17:32:00.005-04:00

A few months ago I found a post over on Skrap N' Chat about Storytelling Frames. The original was a guest post by Elizabeth Kartchner on Ali Edwards' blog.

Anyway, I've been planning one of these ever since, and finally this week, with my son away with the grandparents, I re-painted 2 walls of his room and made him his own storytelling wall!

Knowing how little boys are about change sometimes, and how some of them are about moving their things around when they're not home, I told him about it in advance, or at least the idea of it, describing it as a wall all about him and the things he likes, and he seemed excited about it. I even consulted him about what subjects he would like me to include on it. This one ended up more as a collage or mural than Elizabeth K's did, but I wanted to incorporate his license plate collection and his Cars wall decals as part of the embellishment, as well as his Ikea star night light and a hubcap I found him. He's been asking for car parts including hubcaps ever since Christmas time for his collection.

Cars were the obvious subject choice. I used a Kinder Surprise Lightning McQueen for the frame (it was the only one that fit under the glass) and did the tracks with black Color Box ink and one of his Johnny Lightning cars (they actually have rubber tires, which make excellent tracks). The picture is of Antonio a few years ago, showing off his Lightning McQueen collection.

Drawing was another obvious choice, not just as a typical childhood must-have but because it's actually something he's really good at and enjoys. I cut 4 spaces into the frame and put a favourite picture of Antonio drawing, along with various excerpts of different things he's drawn. Narrowing this down was probably the hardest part. I also included a paper plate he'd drawn as another round element, and a clipboard where he can display any drawing he feels like at the moment.

Money and currency is another of his recent interests so it had to find a way on there, with some cut-outs of different Canadian bills and some coins and bills he's collected, and a picture of him getting a $100 bill for Christmas last year.

He also loves flags so I did one with a Canadian flag (left over from Canada Day) and a picture of him on Canada Day 2009.

Another frame has a picture of Antonio swimming, another favourite of his, with 2 of his swimming lesson report cards and some beach rocks. Once I find his old Mont Cascades season pass it'll go in too (I think this pic was taken at Mont Cascades).

One more thing, and this was actually at his request (and my delight), was his newest obsession, Mega Man. For those who never played late 80s Nintendo, Mega Man is a series of super awesome video games which has recently been revived and added on to by the Wii. Mega Man II was my favourite game for much of my childhood and teenage years (oh, it probably still is). and now Antonio has re-discovered it and we're both enjoying playing it together. I had some action figures so I put one in the frame with a picture of him playing. I was skeptical about this at first since you can't find Mega Man action figures anymore and he may not want any of them "on display only" but after hearing he found some in a retro toy store out in BC, I went ahead anyway. If he wants me to take it out later we'll worry about that then.

And that's it! With any luck he'll be happy with it, and if he wants to change it himself, well I guess it's his room. But here it is, as I conceived it, thanks for looking and sweet dreams!~

one more layout

2010-07-07T22:05:00.003-04:00

Wow, it's warm. Even with the a/c going and the box fan in front of it. I slept about 2 hours in the last 2 days and am not quite sure what i'm running on now, but at least i felt like scrapping! The latest challenge at Scrap Yourself was really talking to me....

I looooove scrapping childhood memories, though I did have to look thru my pictures for the right idea (a lot of my favourite childhood memories are already scrapped!) then I remembered the one I wanted to do. I had to "photoshop" a little since I wasn't wearing much but it was the memory that I really cared about. I remember a lot of things from my childhood and a lot of it is pretty abstract...but i always looked at things creatively, even then. Thanks for looking! Now go have a swim or something...it's scorching out there!

Sketchy in Summer

2010-06-28T14:15:00.003-04:00

Summer is here! Part of me is celebrating, part of me really needs to get out of the house. But instead I've been playing with sketches again, finishing up a few page ideas from the back of my mind. Here are my takes on Sketches 108 thru 110 from Creative Scrappers

Sketch #108

Sketch #109

Sketch #110

What is it about summer that makes me wanna use sketches and scrap Christmas layouts? Not a clue. Anyway I did something surprising...I actually went out and found that rumoured LSS across town and guess what, it was actually open!!! Even though it had been over a year since I last had a really good browse thru a LSS, I was a good girl and stayed almost entirely within the 50% off boxes...that's how long it's been, that the stuff in the clearance bin was actually newer than most of my current stash! Of course I stocked up on adhesive too...can't get enough. Found some awesome double-sided tape that's working beautifully. The ladies were very nice and sweet and we had a great time debating Glimmer Mist...they still didn't totally convince me it's as great as they claim. I did try a few of their suggestions and it did work slightly better but I still think chipboard is the only thing it makes prettier than it messes up. Anyway thanks for looking, gotta run! Sweet dreams~

LSS...how do I miss thee?

2010-06-17T15:33:00.004-04:00

Made this page lastnight for Mission 0019 at Mission To Create.

Some of the concepts were a longshot for me...especially the embossed paper, since I have none. So instead I tried an improvised attempt at "faux embossing", which also happens to be a challenge at Skrap N' Chat this month. It's easier to show than explain.

If this were 3 years ago, I could have just ran out and picked up all the stuff for the challenge with no need to improvise. I really miss the LSS. All 5 I used to shop at have gone under, and the last one I heard of is way on the other end of town and has inconvenient store hours. If you'd driven more than 30 minutes out of your way to find a scrapbook store boarded up as many times as I have, you'd understand why I can't get motivated to make the trip to this alleged LSS.

Yes, there are oodles of online shops that boast fabulous deals, which I'm sure are awesome for most. It's just not for me. First of all, I'm a sensory shopper. I don't get inspired by looking at packages of paper on a computer screen, in fact some of the exact paper collections I've been indifferent to when posted online, I've gone crazy over in the store. I have no idea what I want until I see it in real life, let alone how well the colours will really work with my photos. Second of all, inspiration comes suddenly for me. I need instant pictures and instant supplies--waiting for postal delivery just won't do. Third of all, nice scrapbook supplies are not cheap. No matter what the deal, I can't justify paying even more on top for shipping.

Yet would having a local scrapbooking store make me a better scrapper? Some of my best pages came from 2005-2006 when I didn't have the considerable scrap stash I have today, when I didn't spend 30 minutes deciding what alphas to use, but how to make pretty letters out of origami paper and poster paint. So while I do miss eyeballing pretty papers and lovely letters, learning to make do with what you have is much better for the creativity (and the credit card!)

Scrap to Basics

2010-06-13T00:33:00.002-04:00

All riiiight!!! My Worldly page was showcased on Scrap Yourself!!! It's so nice to have my scrap mojo back again.

It's midnight, the house is dark and quiet, and I'm highly caffeinated. If I don't get sleepy soon I may have to start another layout....

For now here's a new page I did about my favourite boy.

Made this lastnight. The 3D picture was the challenging part and for the rest I just picked the most glowingly bright scraps from my stash and had at'er with a Sharpie and some nail scissors. Mannnnn was this one fun! I love bright colours against black. Thanks for looking!

Hello mojo!

2010-06-10T22:30:00.007-04:00

I don't know exactly where it came from, but there has been a flash flood of scrappy inspiration around here the last few days. Maybe after hauling through those mega-pages from my last post, and then doing that one Creative Scrappers sketch (which I also incorporated into a Skrap N' Chat challenge, as I am prone to do), I finally got the hankering to just scrap a few pretty pages. First of all here's one I finally did for a travel challenge at Scrap Yourself. This was fun to make, though the journalling technique was challenging...I wrote it out on Notepad first, then copied most of it backwards one word at a time so I could fit it on the page right. I even talked my son into biking with me to Wal-Mart this evening so we could pick up the pics while DH was out with the car!

So we have these family friends with 3 sweet kids, the oldest of which has known Antonio since they were babies, and I've used them as scrap subjects before, and felt it was high time for some recent pages:

And there's plenty more in the works. I'm soaking a picture for an experimental technique which hopefully I'll get to work on tomorrow after work, and another few in the ideas stage, with pictures printed and ready to scrap! Now why is it that the most inspiration hits when you have the least time? When creativity flows you have to act on it! Good thing I'm a fast scrapper!

getting sketchy again

2010-06-07T17:37:00.008-04:00

Here's a quick page I did today with Creative Scrappers' Sketch 107:

I always forget how much I love the look of sewing and painted edges in my pages. I guess it's a time thing. There's just not enough of it for scrapping these days!

This page has, however, broken my recent multi-pix streak. Seems all I wanna scrap in the last few months has been pages like this...

...and this...

...and this...

Even my one-pagers have been pretty loaded...

Every once in a while my scrapping style will re-gravitate towards using as many pictures as I can cram in there. It's why I originally started using 12 X 12 and I'm constantly on a mission to scrap beautifully using lotsapix. It's easy to create something dazzling with one photo, but come on, sometimes there are 100, and you can only narrow it down so much. Some events just can't be illustrated with a single picture. Yes, you can do multiple pages of one event. I did 26 pages of our vacation to Italy. But even among those, only 3 were single photo layouts. Most had 5 or more per page. It's just how I roll!

That said, it's been a challenge making every page perfect with so many pix to choose from. But then again, why does every page have to be perfect? Why does every page need to be better than the last? Of course we always give it our best shot, but sometimes, it's really more about the pictures and the story than the design and decoration. Gotta keep it fun!

...and so it goes

2010-05-11T18:00:00.018-04:00

OK...so I never made it to the end of the week as far as the blogging thing went. I sorta figured I wouldn't, but the week started with such optimism...I'm actually surprised at how far I got with this Week In The Life project. Missed blogdays aside, I've actually finished all the daily pages for the album. The layout design is pretty much taken right from the example on Ali E's product suggestions page, as the actual finished pages weren't yet available for reference when I started printing out pix. I changed the colours and papers, and computer-printed all my journalling on to cards (I knew my own handwriting would never be able to fit everything I wanted in there). Long story short....

Sunny Sunday

Monday Mall Day

Toe-chilling Tuesday

Wednesday. I was a bit anxious today as I always am when I pick up a night shift with less than a day's notice, so other than groceries not a lot got done today.

Thursday. A full day, but fun in hindsight. Worked the night again.

Friday. I spent much of this day panicking over a camera malfunction...that's why most of Friday's pictures were taken with my low-resolution camera phone.

...and finally Saturday comes full-circle with breakfast at Ikea and a night shift at the end.

Thanks so much for looking. And thank you Kirsten and the girls at Skrap N' Chat for drawing my attention to this project, and thank you Ali Edwards for a great idea and cool design inspiration. Sweet dreams~

Day 3

2010-04-28T10:06:00.003-04:00

Seems I've forgotten how to rotate pictures on Blogger, so I tried uploading them to Photobucket first. Not sure if it saved me any time. This daily blogging is something I haven't done since 2004 when we lived in Korea and it was my primary form of entertainment and communication. Anyway, here's Tuesday....

For some reason I can't force myself to sleep in past 6:45, so I get up with the guys and watch French cartoons with Tones.
The guys' morning tickle session
The weather has taken a turn for the worse today, so no bike ride for the guys. Tones heads out to catch the school bus instead.
Please tell me those aren't snowflakes I'm seeing.
In the absence of any plumbing knowledge whatsoever, here's my "green" solution to the leaky bath tap.
Definitely a good morning for a hot bubble bath.
Nutella on toast for breakfast again.
Tuesday=waterday
A quick stop in at the bank and Wal-mart before my noon appointment
Appointment done. Now, to stop by home and pack up my m-i-l for her flight home....
Pick up Tones from school. Now we just gotta get Don from work, and it's off to Montreal airport.
Antonio's mismatched gloves. He often wears mismatched socks too. It's just not a big deal to him either way. I love my boy.
Ew. It is snow.
Seeing Don's mum off at the airport
Eeeeeeeek! Wet feet! Wet feet! This is crazy! There was no snow in Ottawa when we left, and Don was in shorts yesterday!
A rest stop in Tim's on the way home warms the heart and the toes.
Well, we're out of pepperoni, the cream cheese is expired, and no nuts allowed in school. I search the pantry for some canned ham for Antonio's sandwich as Don puts together the rest of his lunch.
We've got mail! Don ordered a book from Amazon.com, and a little gift for Antonio earning his half yellow/half white belt in Judo. Bedtime!
This night winds down as many have these past few days with the Jays.
Sweet dreams!

Day 2: Monday the 26th

2010-04-27T07:43:00.019-04:00

Monday was actually a pretty sweet day for me. A lot more eventful than usual.

Waiting for the kettle for my morning cup of tea. Nutella on toast for breakfast today...mmmm nutella...whoever invented this was a genius...finally an excuse to eat chocolate for breakfast!

My morning computer break. Today I'm uploading pictures of New York from my m-i-l's camera, trying to keep track of my daily notes for this project on a Notepad document, and searching the boards at Skrap N' Chat for the link to the Storytelling Frames thingy, also featured on Ali E's site in a guest post from Elizabeth Kartchner. I'd like to try to do a storytelling wall for Antonio's room this summer. Need frames first.

Can't ask for a nicer day than this in April

Gettin' my one decent pair o' shoes on for going shopping with m-i-l. She wants to look for clothes and a friend's birthday gift, and I need to restock at the bulk store.

Picking up my psyllium husk in Bulk Barn

Saw this awesome deal on picture frames in Black's. They have a bit of space between the glass and the photo area and look perfect for the Storytelling frames I was pondering earlier today!

While waiting for my m-i-l in the dress store, 2 different people asked me about my frames. I directed them to Black's.

Home again. Checked the messages and ended up picking up a night shift for Thursday and another 7-11 evening on Sunday.

Preparing to reheat a cup of tea while I keep an eye on the Habitant soup me & my m-i-l are having for lunch. We originally planned to eat lunch while we were out, then we got talking teppanyaki, and maybe waiting and going with the guys at dinnertime since she's going home tomorrow and all.

I was going to say "here's where I fold Don's laundry," until I realized it's as much my laundry as it is his, and whoever starts it doesn't make it their load to finish. Hmmm, life lessons learned! (I never said I housework was my strongpoint!)

Don and Tones arrive home. Tones will soon come in quite distraight, not because of anything at school, but because he's suddenly remembered that in the big MegaBloks bin he donated to the Salvation Army months ago, he left a red Matchbox truck he'd gotten from treasure box at church. This boy has easily over 1,000 Matchbox cars and he can account for ALL of them. His dad actually promises him that if he finishes his homework and violin practise quickly enough, we can stop by the SA to check if it's still there and buy the truck back if necessary. Yes, perhaps a bit extreme, but when you only have one child, and he looks at you with those teary puppydog eyes....

(note: we did check the SA and it wasn't there. At least there was closure.)

When we parked at the teppanyaki place Don noticed the odometer was all 1's. Cool!

Don: "Hey look--it's us not flying to France!"

One of those moments....

Monday = sweepnight

Tonesy is way too involved in inventing a Canadian $1,000,000 dollar bill with a car on the back, to even notice that I'm trying to brush his teeth.

Blue Jays just scored another run. They eventually lost but it was a 13-12 game so at least it was entertaining to watch.

Day 1: Well, here we go....

2010-04-26T21:16:00.001-04:00

So a buncha girls over at Skrap N' Chat are doing Ali Edwards' A Week In The Life project, and it looks intriguing, so I'm playing along too. I'm a bit later starting it, as Ali's was last week when I was still on holiday out in BC. Whatever.

The idea is you do 4 pages for each day and the middle 2 are baseball card protector pages with pix and journalling cards. I'll probably use Ali's template for all the pages but design my own inserts. I'm thinking turquoise and lime green...but then again I'm always thinking turquoise and lime green....

So anyways, Ali kept track of her creative process by blogging each day. I'm using a Notepad document for now, but I'm going to try and blog along with the rest of them. I'm not going to have everything word-for-word and all, but maybe it'll be a good opportunity to match up some of the pix with the matching memories. I'll start with Day 1, which was Sunday.

Sunday morning I was up bright and early riding my bike...well actually, I was on my way home from a 12-hour night shift. I like to ride my bike to work in the spring and summer on Saturdays because I get daylight on both ends of my shift.

Tonesy greets me home with exciting news about getting the silver medal in Wii Bowling lastnight after I left for work. Yay Tones! Now, it's bedtime for me.

Sunday lounging. Don's mum is out visiting...they were supposed to be in Europe while Tones & me were in BC, but with that volcano and everything they had to come up with a Plan B. So they rented a car, went to New York and came back home the same day me & Tones did.

Don's delicious dinner creation: meatless chicken with pineapple and teriyaki sauce, with noodles & broccoli. Yay Don!

Helping Don put away the leftovers. Note I haven't bothered to get dressed yet. Maybe now's a good time.

Off to the closet to scrounge up something to wear to work....

Night shifts make it hard to make it to church regularly, but I like to read a daily devotion and Bible verse once a day. The sunbeam's a good place to sit for that. Or anything actually.

Tones comes in for dinner and a drink of apple juice. Seems I've barely seen him all day.

The sunset out the front door at work was so pretty, I just kept snapping pictures and then it would get even prettier and I'd have to snap more....

Home from work and everyone's asleep, but I'm wide awake from working night all weekend. Now's when I usually call in my availability for next week.

I used my extra time this evening to upload my vacation pics to Facebook, and it was taking a while, so I turned on the TV to play some Wii, and caught the final score of the last game in the Vancouver/LA series. GO CANUCKS!!!

I have more pics of Sunday but they're taking forever to upload so that's it for now. Sweet Dreams~

Another Year, Another Layout

2010-03-31T21:44:00.003-04:00

I just turned 32 on Monday. Crazy stuff eh?

I also finished the massive painting project that was our living room and entranceway, which meant that this morning I got to take on the challenge of clearing out all my paint junk and reassembling my non-functional scrap corner, which is now a delightful shade of buttery yellow on one wall and Canadian Flag red on the other. A word of caution: when painting in red, you'll need like 3 times as many coats as you think you'll need. Even with the expensive paint. Come to think of it, didn't I already go through this 3 years ago...?

Anyway, with my corner replenished and conveniently organized, and no more painting jobs to eat up my free time, naturally i had to scrap tonight. So I went ahead with Mission 0013 from Mission To Create:

Mission 0013 included a sketch, woodgrain (i love Cosmo Cricket!), at least 5 red buttons, clouds and twine. I'm happy with this page but wow it sure feels out of my usual repertoire. I don't think I've ever used so much pink all at once. This KI Memories paper has been mine since early 2006 and I was thinking it would never get used. Thank goodness for adorable baby nieces!

Off to bed for me now. Sweet dreams!

Yay Spring

2010-03-08T11:59:00.006-05:00

...let's hope it stays!

Here's a new LO for Mission 0012 at Mission to Create. I recognized this month's guest designer Amber as the same one I was a guest designer with on KC way back in the day! Cool eh?

So this time the components were a vintage item, decorative tape, patterned paper background, blue green and brown and a Blue Rodeo album cover as inspiration...it inspired me to remember to scrap those pictures I took of the Blue Rodeo concert me & dh went to on Valentine's Day:

It was also a nifty coincidence that this DCWV rockstar paper I've had for years fit so well into this challenge. Sometimes the perfect opportunity just pops up out of the blue. I also attempted to glimmer mist the "awesome" and of course failed with flying colours. Glimmer mist and I don't get along well. Live and learn.

I'm enjoying plowing through my stash with reckless abandon. No more fears of saving something for the perfect page...the perfect page will never happen if i'm always afraid a better opportunity will come along. Thinking this spring I may have to get my butt out to another scrap expo though...it's been years since i had a good scrapstuff shopping spree. Thanks for looking. Sweet dreams.

Feeling Golden

2010-03-01T08:07:00.009-05:00

I know I'm on the other side of the country and all, but still using the momentum from my Olympic high to get me through Spring Break home with The Boy...and also reclaim my scrap mojo from hibernation mode.

First things first. Here's my latest Mission to Create challenge:

Gotta get one in for a shot at February's sweeeeeet kit (yes, I'm aware I've won once already. It's always nice to dream). This month I may or may not have included all the components, since variations just happened as it came together....

The components were birds or butterflies (I got one in, hope that's ok), mostly black and one other colour (it was intended to be black with red but can you blame me for throwing in a little GOLD?), 2 different punches (I punched both the cardstock tags out of a sheet...is that a longshot?), a picture 3 1/2 X 5 or smaller, and torn paper. A fun challenge all round and another chance to scrap some Olympic memories.

Speaking of which, here's a page I did for Layout Tag over at Skrap N' Chat (can't take credit for the design obviously but the theme was my idea. I love experimenting with different takes on "then & now").

And in the spirit of athletic victory, here's a 2-pager on the recent Superbowl festivities I got to be a part of last month.

Thanks for looking! Sweet dreams! Yay Canada!

Lovin' little 'Lex

2009-12-15T09:15:00.004-05:00

Had to get this posted before Christmas preps really get into action and scrapping gets put on holiday hold, so here's one for Mission 0006!

Pink yellow and teal, polka dots, black pen outlines, 3 label stickers and something felt make this my newest Mission Create creation. I'm lovin how this one came out. Then again, look at what I had to work with. Those baby eyes just twinkling! I'm so looking forward to meeting her IRL. Apparently those outfits I sent out for the shower are still a bit big for her to wear yet. Given my experience with motherhood, it never occurred to me that some babies actually have to "grow into" 3-month clothes. Who knew?! Ah well, more time to enjoy them!

Have a blessed Christmas all, and sweet dreams!

Joy to the world

2009-12-11T21:57:00.005-05:00

Today I feel great, even though I'm fighting a cold. Today was unexpectedly a day of many accomplishments, and I don't even feel worn out for the night shift I still have to do in an hour.

I started the morning knowing I have a weekend of night shifts starting tonight, an unfinished album that needs to be done by Tuesday (with pictures still needing to be printed), a defrosted tourtiere to drop off at my son's school for the Christmas lunch today, a Christmas lunch at my son's school to attend today, a floor to sweep, and no contingency plan for Christmas cards this year, since I just found out I won't be able to print out the digi-cards I designed this week (Costco card expired). And I could feel a cold coming on. Then, my sweet husband reminded me we haven't bought anything for our friends' kids across the country yet.

So I got up, did my yoga, dropped off the tourtiere and headed to Wal-Mart (friends' kids toys...check!), Staples (Christmas cards...check!), home (address list for cards...check!) and parked at my son's school. Turned out the lunch was an hour later than I expected so I used the time to walk to the post office (stamps for cards...check!) and was able to write all the ones needing to be mailed, while I sat in the car. Had a nice but crowded as usual Christmas lunch with my boy and his school (check!) and went home. I took a moment to send off some pictures to Wal-Mart for inside the cards and the album I needed to finish (check!) and worked on one of 5 pages for the unfinished album. Then I lost momentum, made myself a Neo-Citran and had a nap (night shift prep...check!) By the time I got up it was dinnertime (love my husband!) and I even had enough time to run out and grab the pics I ordered from Wal-Mart (check!) and finished not only the rest of my Christmas cards after dinner, but the last 5 pages for the now finished album! Whewwwww!!!

Thank you for staying with me this far as I babble on. I have just felt so flustered this last week getting things ready for Christmas and am so glad to have a handle on the big things before I go in for my night shift.

Anyway, one of the pages I finished is a simple take on Mission 0005 for Mission Create:

Looks like I'm a bit past the deadline, but whatever, last month was my turn to win, I just gotta do this for completeness' sake. Love this 70s picture of my mum! Next week is probably going to be quite preoccupied for me but I'll be back soon! Sweet dreams!

Sparkles and Sunshine

2009-12-02T12:34:00.004-05:00

It's a gorgeous sunny day, beaming in the front window and reflecting the many colours of tinsel garland on the half-decorated Christmas tree to my left! I'm leaving the rest of the ornaments to my son to put up, since we didn't get much of a chance yesterday with his music lesson and all.

Anyway, I've decided to jump back on the Creative Scrappers sketch wagon with some cool retro pix of my mum...for an album I'm working on. This is for Sketch #80:

I never thought I'd use this wild CherryArte paper (I think it came in one of those goodie bags from CKC) but it does have that retro feel to it...why not use it on retro pictures? Thanks for looking!

How cool is that?!

2009-11-23T10:22:00.004-05:00

So ya know that new challenge blog I've been playing over on, Mission Create? Well just a week or so ago they announced their first winner...and guess who it was?! Me!!! I'm so happy! Just this week I received a gorgeous box full of sweet scrap goodies from The Paper Passion...blues and greens and all...perfect for scrappin' The Boy and finishing up a few more projects for December...Thank you Mission Create and thank you The Paper Passion!

So now that I've won already should I quit while I'm ahead? Not a chance! This has been way too much fun so here is my creation for Mission 0004:

The options this time were: use an ad as inspiration (the ad was posted on MC), use a creature (check out my seahorse), mini alphas, blue/green/orange and a title from a children's book. I couldn't resist using 'em all again...why not?

Well, I'm off to work on Christmas scrappin' till I get called into work! Sweet dreams!

Bad news...good news!

2009-11-08T17:36:00.003-05:00

The bad news is I've been sick. I'm better now save a slight cough, but unfortunately the worst of it hit on Halloween forcing me to miss out on all the festivities. Yea, I'm still mad about wasting time building a costume I never got to wear anywhere, but what're ya gonna do. I'm just glad it was pretty mild to begin with.

The good news? I'm an auntie again!!! My brother and his wife had their first baby a few weeks ago and she is an absolute doll. I won't get to see her quite yet, but i did hit the store as soon as I was feeling better and have sent her out some cool new threads to get her started.

Speaking of which...I've been scrapping again. It's hard not to with such a pretty new member of the family! This has proven a wonderful new opportunity to try my hand at girl pages. Here's my contribution to Mission 0003 at Mission Create:

I know the rules state specifically you can use as many or as few parts of each challenge as you like, but I really feel it a personal challenge to include all of them, since combining challenges is one of my favourite things to do. It also provides more direction, which makes the Lo come together faster. This time round was: pink (check), buttons (check), transparency (check), a specific sketch (check here), and lyrics from "My life would suck without you" by Kelly Clarkson. It didn't specify how many or few lyrics, and I tell ya it was a bit of a challenge trying to incorporate those into a birth announcement page, but I managed to get one line in at the end of the journalling. Woohoooo! Thanks for looking. Sweet dreams!

Yay for days off!

2009-10-20T13:31:00.003-04:00

I'm enjoying mine by drinking Earl Grey in my PJ's, working on my son's Halloween costume, and of course...a little scrap action.

Just finished up a layout for Mission 0002 over at Mission Create:

This time round we were to stamp, use cork, include purple green and orange, have wallet sized photos and make it a Halloween page. Fortunately I hadn't scrapped last year's trick-or-treat pics yet. I did have to hit the $ store for the cork but it was easier to work with than i imagined. It was also a good motivation to drag out the old foam stamps. Other than having to clean them, I'd forgotten how much I love using them. Thanks for looking.

It's a lovely sunny day here and I'm going to go enjoy what's left of my day off. Sweet dreams~

An Exciting New Mission

2009-10-14T11:00:00.006-04:00

Hellooooooooooooo out there, hope you slept better than I did!

Just checking in this morning to post a layout I just finished for this sweet new blog Mission Create. It's been a crazy weekend with work and all but I just had to get this Mission completed, since they've just started and I really wanted to show my support, since they're all about one of my all-time favourite scrapbooking specialties...combining challenges!

Here's what I finished up this morning:

I've had this pic for a while that I took of my son on the church gym floor, this Mission just seemed to speak to it.

Update: After browsing thru some of the other awesome takes on this challenge, it dawned on me that it may be good to actually explain what I did here. The challenges were: a 6 word title, a sketch (posted over on MC), stickles or glitter, and patterned paper from 3 different manufacturers. I did 'em all because I love combining challenges! The papers are from Junkitz, Bo Bunny and Scenic Route (actually there's 2 SR pieces in there if ya count the title), and the stickles i kinda made myself out of glitter and Gallery Glass, for want of the right colour. Ahhh, for the days when there were actually 2 LSS's within acceptable driving distance from me!

I also updated my Slide to include more recent layouts.

Have a great rest of October and remember to eat more candy. Sweet dreams~

Really Late Update: This page has been taken down for the time being 'cuz it's gonna be in the Winter 2010 Canadian Scrapbooker!!!!!

Back to the Scrap Corner

2009-07-25T18:42:00.007-04:00

After a long break from the scrap world, I've finally found my mojo again. And all it took was a few hundred pictures from my trip to Italy.

Last May, we upgraded to a bigger condo, and in it was a perfect little corner for me to build an all-new scrap area. The laundry room I used in the last place didn't work out as well as I hoped...it ended up being more of a storage closet than a scrap space, and part of what dampened my mojo was having to keep running back and forth from the laundry room to the kitchen table and then back again...and nothing ever got put back where it was supposed to go.

The wonderful thing about the new scrap corner is it's quite separated from the rest of the living room, and I can keep it a perpetual scrapmess without having to worry about it offending anyone. As a scrapper you learn with each time you reorganize your scrap space, and I think I have a pretty good idea what works best for me now, so even though it's not a big space by any standard, I have still been able to create 14 pages there without having to clean up after myself.

Here's some pics!

I couldn't fit in all the wall boxes from my old space, but am making better use of the ones I did keep. The long box closer to the desk is great for keeping things close at hand but not buried, like my paper trimmer. It's also great for keeping a cup of coffee within arm's reach. I can also reach my tool drawer chest, where most of my embellishments are kept, without having to climb on anything. Ink, adhesive and stamps go in the square space, the rest of my plastic containers fit nicely underneath the desk, along with my 3-drawer unit which I use for projects in progress and Christmas pages.

This desktop and paper tower were my own creation, put mostly together from scraps I found on the curb. The shelves in the paper tower are the wire squares that used to form my old paper storage cube, only with a wooden frame around them they hold their shape much nicer now. I also made them wider apart as my paper collection has increased. I keep them all in extra large Ziploc bags so scraps can be kept with their proper collection. The desktop I had cut at the hardware store to fit exactly into the space, with the paper tower as its support. Getting it in was a challenge.

My Ikea wire thingies have made a comeback for large photos, magazines, and some of my cross stitching stuff. The homemade "clip-it-up"s were one thing that worked out well from the last space so I made more of them for the new space. Yes, that's all my ribbon in tiny bags. I don't know how this will work out yet, but so far I haven't found an efficient way to store the stuff so it's worth a try. The white shelf I made again from scraps from the curb. It helps when your neighbours are renovating.

It's hard to see, but the 2 smaller squares on the wall I just filled with little plastic 3-drawer units which are great for storing embellishments that don't fit in the tool chest like big flowers, chipboard pieces and my massive collection of My Mind's Eye transparencies and die-cuts.

This is my scrap corner from the stairway. You can see there's a rail on one side, and a window on the other, so even though it's a small area it seems spacious.

Eventually I may repaint the area and hang a few more lights, but it's still pretty soon after we moved in and there's time yet to think of that. So far it has been a very usable space for me and when a small space is organized well, it can be easier to use than a large one because you can reach everything. And for me, that's a big deal.

It's That Time Again...

2008-08-07T13:31:00.003-04:00

August. I wonder if that means summer will finally start. I swear, we must have switched summers with BC this year. Or South Korea. Seriously, this is nuts.

This is the time of year when for some unexplained reason, I always get the craving to scrap Christmas pages. I got 4 done in the last week! With holidays, trying to keep The Boy entertained all day, and worrying about whether I'm picking up enough shifts, I'm amazed there's been any time for scrapping at all. Yet this is what I feel like scrapping.

There are so many gorgeous Christmas themed scrapping supplies out there...who says you only have to use them in December? Or January, for that matter...I have to wonder about that. I think LSS's should promote Christmas products in January, since that's really when we'd be scrapping our Christmas photos, isn't it? Oh well, that's just my 2 cents.

So I got talked into picking up some Glimmer Mist the other week there. The woman in the LSS was all excited about getting it in, saying it had already been selling out pretty fast, and my friend was all over it too. It just looks so swirly and hypnotic in that little bottle, doesn't it? Anyway, I tried it and wasn't that impressed. It does look lovely on raw chipboard, but so far that's the ONLY thing it works on. It won't stick to anything the least bit shiny, and curls paper and cardstock. If you're a big fan of chipboard and sparkly, this is your product. I just wish it worked on a wider range of stuff.

Kit Krazy

2008-07-19T14:46:00.008-04:00

I've been having so much fun making up my own scrapbook kits! I have 6 made so far, two each of three different sets that are actually quite similar now that I look at them:

I'm working on a 4th right now, a more boyish-themed one since that's really my area. These 3 were mostly inspired by embellishments I've been hoarding. I tried my best to co-ordinate the papers and keep to one page per company per kit. Sort of a personal challenge since it's so easy to use all papers from the same line.

So I finished up the last few albums from Buffalo, and have made some serious headway on my Florida album. My new scrapping goal for the summer is to do more pages just for fun, as opposed to just for a challenge I've created, or to use up pictures I'm stuck on. Well, okay, this isn't really a new goal. I guess it's always a desire of mine. I guess what I'm saying is now that I'm caught up, I'm ready to go back to scrapping whatever I want whenever I feel so inspired.

I've also been pondering the idea of submitting pages, and whether it's something I'm going to continue doing. In one class at CKC, the teacher confirmed that how recent your products are does matter when submitting. Last year's stuff would "probably" be ok, but anything older and magazines won't really be interested, since they want to showcase the newer items. Considering it is a business with products to sell, it makes sense, but I have to admit I was a little disappointed. I could care less what year my stuff was created, as long as it goes with my pictures. I've never once made the decision to use one product over the other based on which one was newer, it's all about what goes best with my creative vision. However I can accept that magazines do have certain objectives, and that's fine. I just don't plan to make any changes to my scrap habits in order to conform to their rules. I don't throw out last year's clothes when the new spring fashions come out, neither will I stop using Chameleon alphas and Basic Grey Blitzen paper because they came out 3 years ago. I just won't submit those pages.

On a slightly related note, I have decided to try something new on my blog. Just like everyone, I love patterned paper, but there are a few lines that just really do it for me. So I've decided to celebrate those lines by showcasing all the things I've done with them in my blog. This week I wanna start with what has been my favourite since I first saw it over a year ago: Cosmo Cricket Halfway Cafe. It goes with my picture like my son goes with cars. In fact, all the papers in this boyish line are named after cities from the song Route 66. Which, of course, my son adores thanks to Disney/Pixar.

Scraplifted from a SUV ad:

My son's first sarcastic comment:

Little known Antonio facts:

Did I mention this paper is totally Antonio?

A Christmas present for my dad:

Here's my latest one:

On a roll!

2008-06-26T19:21:00.004-04:00

I can't believe it's tomorrow. June 27, 2008...me & DH's 10 freakin' year anniversary!!! Isn't that just crazy??? I don't wanna say something cheesy like "where did the time go" but seriously...sometimes I think the only difference between me and my cousins are memories of the 1980's out of diapers.

So I have no idea what we're doing tomorrow...we're doing SOMEthing...but I'm not allowed to know what. All I have to go by is a note in my Sanity Saver written in his handwriting that says "Be ready for anything by 3pm. No shifts till Saturday." I'm excited...but yeah, I'm nervous too. Partially because I'm in the dark, partially because I haven't had a good night to work on his anniversary gift yet. He's going out later tonight...I better get a move on!!!

So anyway, I've been making my best effort at the annual stay-at-home-mom venture while DS is home from school while dealing with my newfound scrap momentum by 1) working on my Florida album and 2) finishing some old projects (and of course my Buffalo pages). Here's what I've accomplished so far:

"1, 2, 3, 4X6"

"Latest & Greatest With Basic Grey"

"Latest & Greatest With Basic Grey"

"Scheming Around"

"Scheming Around"

"Playful Pages"

"Scheming Around"

"1, 2, 3, 4X6"

An unfinished object from last year

I also did a couple of cool 2-pagers but I suck at taking pictures of 2-pagers, so those will have to wait. As for Florida...it's almost done except for titles, journalling and embellishments. The hard part of deciding which pics go on which pages and how, is almost over with.

Anyway I gotta cut this off as DH just took off and I gotta finish his present!!!

Buffalo Girls

2008-06-08T20:02:00.021-04:00

This is a journey best illustrated in pictures.

Meeting the girls at Union Station

Ready to scrap

Meeting "Rod". Is this food?

Scrapping in the hotel room...why didn't we think of this last year?

They have Timmie's in the USA!

It's a little different though.

Shopping Shopping Shopping

Can you believe I had no advance notice of the colours these layouts would be? Man I'm a good guesser!

The beginning of the most gorgeous project I've ever made at CKC

The creator of said project. I'm proud to share her last name.

The Croppers

The Browsers

The Posers

Don't be fooled. Any one of these innocent looking women can and will tear your arm off for a glue stick

No one is above hiding behind a pop machine

Heading out for chocolate martinis!

I think it's sort of rhetorical to go on and on about how much fun this trip was. It's pretty obvious, I would assume. There were a few downers, such as losing a $32 bag of buttons and acrylic letters I bought in the Vendor Faire, and having my first negative alcohol experience which prevented me from joining in the fun at the Chocolate Bar on Saturday. However, there were plenty of ups, like American sizes at Tim's for Canadian prices, finding a Lightning McQueen license plate album and getting a spectacular deal on a huge box of chipboard. The projects this year were absolutely stunning, and the classes very educational. I took home a lot more than just scrap supplies. I can't wait to get some time and really make some new pages just for fun!

Gettin' Hyped

2008-05-15T20:09:00.007-04:00

CKC Buffalo is 2 weeks away...and I've been trying to get my mojo up (and my photos printed) in preparation! Here's some Mother's Day cards:

On the downside, KC has been down again this week as they fix up a few more thingies...but on the bright side it has forced me to use a little more time for actual scrapping. I finished my Designer Original which I hope to post soon...the homepage and gallery are up but so far the forums are still down. In the meantime here's a sneak peek:

Other than that I've been working on pages for the Book Of KC Spirits Swap, which I have basically finished. They come in 4 colours. I may yet add more to them, perhaps at least the date, but I do want to keep them pretty simple. 6 X 6 fills up fast.

Now for some exciting news...I'm going to be in Canadian Scrapbooker again!!! I just submitted 4 pages for the winter call, and suddenly I get an e-mail asking for one of the pages I submitted for the fall call! Since it's part of the copyright agreement to remove it from my online galleries, I can't show you the specific one, but if you can remember, it's the one with all the shoes.

Now here's something to think about. I send them pages for every call they put out, mostly the layouts I like the best, which often are the ones I put the most time, effort and product into. Out of all those, only two have been chosen. Though quite distinct from one another, both could be described as simple, and neither use a lot of brand name product--in fact, neither use much more than multicoloured cardstock. I wonder if there's something to be learned from this?

In The Meantime....

2008-04-24T19:46:00.006-04:00

Kindred Creations is suffering some technical difficulties right now...I try to look on the positive side and say, sometimes it has to get worse for it to get better. I know the owner is working hard to fix it and hopefully this will work out all those little bugs once and for all. What can I say...it's not like I'm a technogenius. Making this blog is the extent of my abilities. I'm just glad the KC Ideas Blog is still up...if you're of the many waiting for KC to be up and running again, why not check it out? I just made an entry last Monday!

In the world of scrapbooking, I've mainly been working on a file folder album based on my fellow KC DT member Teresa's Spirited Scrap from last month. It's about my visit last year to Penetanguishene, Ontario--the town I lived in for the first 10 years of my life. I've had the pics for a year and have been anxious to see them scrapped in their own mini album but really wanted it to be as close to perfect as possible. This was a trip with an insane amount of emotional memories, in other words the very essence of scrapbooking itself, and I want to do it justice. I use the SEI BeBop collection. Here's a sneak peek:

In the world of everything else...I'm still tired. I know I'm the one who chose to work nights, and yes, I still prefer them to days. Maybe this is a warped way of looking at it, but the way I figure, the only other thing I could be doing at night is sleeping anyway. So I may as well work, and sleep during the day--when I choose to. If I have something I need to do like go to the post office or pick up train tickets, I can work my sleep schedule around that. But if I'm working during the day, I keep thinking I could be doing other things instead. KWIM? Nonetheless I need to work on my ability to say no to overtime. I forget how much it drains me!

Here's the last layout I made:

It was for a game of Layout Tag on KC. The funny thing was the original LO was one of mine. Well, technically, it was one of Making Memories' from last year's CKC trip, but I did change it up a little.

I've also changed my scraproom to the laundry room. It may sound like a downgrade but it will be a more separated space for me to create in, and also allows me a second chance to re-think my organizational strategy now that I've seen what I have and how it needs to fit in. It also allows us to have some semblance of a peaceful bedroom setup. Here's a sneak peek:

If you've gotten this far, thanks so much for dropping by. I would love to make this blogging thing a more regular activity. Sweet dreams 8)

Something to get excited about!

2008-02-21T13:07:00.009-05:00

Yesterday was awesome. Don decided he wanted to do his birthday lunch at the Edoko and so I met him there at 11:30...not only was lunch awesome as always (teppanyaki is my favourite!) but his lunch break coincided perfectly with the fact that I needed to be home by 1 p.m. to register for CKC Buffalo! I probably didn't blog about it then, but I went last year and had an absolute blast with 4 other girls from Scrapbook Star....

This year I really wanted to register online the moment it opened to make sure I didn't miss out on any classes. Guess it was a good call--I heard the clear album class sold out that same day, I had a feeling it would! So glad I got in!

Anyway I'm feeling much better today, even though I'm heading into another 4-day work weekend...it's all good. Gotta save up for Buffalo! I even scrapbooked this week just for fun! Here's a page I made for a member challenge at KC:
And one I made just for fun:

And a 2-pager:

Sweet Dreams!

Winter Blues

2008-02-19T07:54:00.002-05:00

Ironically, this is Morning 5 after what has been an exhausting work week, and I'm wide awake. I know the attendance here is pretty sparse but I really just felt like making a comment this morning.

I want to apologize to anyone who I've tired with my incessant complaining and general bad attitude concerning this winter weather. My area has been covered no less than a foot deep since mid-December and I'll admit it's especially getting to me this year.

Last year was the beginning of a new age of my life, an age where I finally took serious actions to eliminate my anxiety, and part of this was arranging various factors in my life so that I had better control over them and was therefore able to keep away from things that made me panic. And it was working.

This December was the first time that the weather actually got between me and my everyday duties, and it was totally beyond my control. I had been so in control for so long, and I couldn't deal with it. I felt like 2005 all over again.

I don't ever want to feel like that again. But I'm still working on it, with the support of God and my two favourite boys. For now, every time someone tells me they heard we're due for another blizzard I roll my eyes and pray I haven't booked any shifts for that night. I may have posted last year around this time regarding my near-accident and how my aunt died in a winter collision in Ottawa when she was 27, but suffice it to say I don't enjoy driving this time of year.

I need to remember that just because something is out of my control does not make me powerless. Nothing is worth anxiety. And as I have recently come to learn, it IS entirely possible to have caution without anxiety. Caution with anxiety is fear. My goal is to live without fear.

I pray all my friends and family will understand this and accept my apology. I look forward to trying to maintain a more positive attitude in ALL seasons.

Expelliarmus

2008-02-06T14:09:00.001-05:00

Today has been another lovely day of sleeping in till 11:30, doing yoga, drinking tea and wasting time on the internet. One heavily addictive site I've come across recently is www.joindumbledoresarmy.com where I have now won almost 30,000 points and am very close to being in the South Korea Top 300. For some weird reason there's no Canada option on "choose your country" so I went with the last place I lived instead. Why not?

I'm also addicted to the Harry Potter mini-games on Facebook, where I'm now #62 in Ravenclaw house out of about 400 thousand. Dolores Umbridge's Cats is particularly addictive.

Yes, you may think this is an insane waste of time for someone who's almost 30 and everything, but this is a day off for me. What else exactly am I supposed to be doing? I already did all my housework this week. I don't work until tomorrow night. Don and Tones are at school. How I waste my time is entirely up to me, and I really don't care for daytime television.

I added a slideshow to my blog, with a bunch of my scrapbook layouts. Let's just see if I can figure out how to place it.

Sweet Dreams for now!

Dreams of Spring

2008-02-02T17:08:00.000-05:00

Hmmm, well there's a change...I actually shared my blog link!!! So in the eventuality that I have company, let's update.

I went to FLORIDA!!! I have never been anywhere where you can wear a tank top in January before, and living where I do it was very hard to visualize till I stepped out of Ft. Lauderdale airport. Oh wow did I need that! It was just the perfect escape, and though I did have to eventually return to the white stuff again, I'm glad I got to skip a week of it. I'm trying to have a positive attitude, but I get cold so easily. I'm triple and quadruple layering my clothing every day. Well, it's February now...and I'm already looking forward to spring.

Anyway, I am still scrapping, and still designing for KC, though unfortunately Scrapbooking Cafe has gone under. I won't get into the long story again but suffice it to say I'm disappointed.

Haven't bought a lot of new scrap stuff since the Boxing Day clearance at the OTHER LSS that closed up shop suddenly. I understand that business is a tough world and all, but really, it would be so nice for once if a store would give a little bit of notice before they fled town, kwim?

I'm also working lots and lots of night shifts, mostly on call. I've discovered I love night shifts. Once you get past re-setting your internal clock, it's actually one of the best shifts you can work. I do well working alone...I like a job where I can sing while I mop and watch Star Trek: TNG while I clean wheelchairs. The only questions is what will I do this summer when Tones is home from school all day?! I hope they have lots of weekends available!

I've made a friend from work, who I have successfully turned into a scrapbooker. In payment, she has successfully turned me into a Harry Potter junkie. Neither of us are complaining though, and enjoy a weekly routine of cropping together while watching HP movies.

Oh, how the time flies when you get up at 4:30! I have to be off to yet another night shift in a little while so I better wrap this up so I have time to make myself a big bag of popcorn to bring with me. Sweet Dreams!

Warning: Spoilers Within

2007-12-10T19:14:00.000-05:00

Not yet, don't worry. I don't know why I chose today to update. We'll see if this one makes it to "Publish".

Anyway here are a few of my latest layouts..."latest" meaning new since I last updated. I've been feelng a bit introverted with my scrapping recently. I guess with a shelf full of what I think of as the "glorified photo album" kind of layouts, I'm looking into scrapbooking also as a means of journalling my life. I don't really write a journal, not at the moment, anyway...but scrapping is kind of a neat way to record emotions, random thoughts and creative habits as well as just life's moments and events. I've also been feeling Christmasy, so there's a few of those in here too.

Don and I saw Beowulf today. We actually meant to see it 2 weeks ago, but it wasn't playing at the right time...ended up seeing August Rush instead. Neither of us had heard of it, but it sounded better than Fred Claus, and those were the only 2 playing a a time we could be out of in time to pick up Tones. It was freaking awesome!!! Sappy as anything, but fortunately Don and I being music people (and parents) were the perfect audience for this brand of cheese. I would totally see it again.

Beowulf, on the other hand...wasn't exactly what I expected. Not that it was bad, or anything. Call me a dunce, but I never realized this was an animated movie...apparently Don had seen the reviews so he knew...instead, I spent the whole picture wondering why all the women had no expression on their faces and their dresses never wrinkled when they sat down. This is the most realistic computer animation I have ever seen...perhaps they intended for people to not be able to tell the difference. The problem is, it borders so close to reality that one who is none the wiser (aka me) judges it as a live-action movie with actors who move like robots injected with huge amounts of Bo-Tox. I remember thinking the same thing about that Final Fantasy movie a few years ago. It's just my personal opinion but computer animation is good for special effects, other than that I think it's best left to kids' movies. Fantasy and reality are both better in their pure forms.

Speaking of which...I'm supposed to see Enchanted with a friend from work this week. This will be the third week we've attempted to get out to see it. First she got called into work, then she lost her phone and we couldn't get a hold of each other...maybe third time will be the charm? I rarely get to see Disney movies...so we'll see if this one can prove me wrong about my whole outlook on fantasy meets reality.

Random Thoughts September Edition

2007-09-04T07:42:00.000-04:00

Tones is starting kindergarten today and I'm sooooo excited for him! This being the first day, and knowing he's there right now, I'm also nervous. I don't even like to think about school now that I'm done but I hope he has fun. I'm so proud of my big boy!

I saw the movie Stardust lastnight with Don. It was amazing. Why don't they make more movies like that nowadays? I just adore fairy tales.

Getting over a lousy cold. Haven't tasted a thing since Friday, so I don't feel like eating anything, which is good because I think I must have gained 30 pounds in Quebec City. How does a 4.5 hour road trip turn into 7 hours??? I keep meaning to go to Curves but whenever I pick up a night shift I end up not going because I'm sleeping all day after. And there have been a lot of night shifts. Which is also a good thing, considering how much money we've spent this summer. However, I'm electing not to panic. Some things are worth panicking over--money isn't one of them. I mean, not being able to pay your bills is one thing. Having to suck it up and pay interest on our Mastercard bill for a few months is another. Air miles, baby, air miles!

Well, today we're going to Japanese Village for lunch so my sense of smell and taste had better be back by then. I woke up this morning not drowning in my own sinuses for once--that's a good sign.

Time to go...I feel other sanity-replenishing random activities calling me....

Just Breathe

2007-08-16T20:07:00.000-04:00

So today I just spent nearly 2 weeks' spending money buying the first season of Namaste Yoga on DVD. Why? Because that show is freaking hypnotic. I think I've finally found an exercise routine that works for me...and I'm looking forward to doing it every day rather than getting up insanely early on my non-work weekends to catch it. And of course I'll still be watching it at work!

That's one thing I love about the rise of the DVD (despite my aversion to the concept of the start menu and the illusion of being able to stop and start wherever you want when your remote gives you the "restricted" sign at all the parts you'd wanna skip anyway). With it has arisen the concept of being able to own every episode of a TV show to watch at your leisure. My first childhood obsession with Punky Brewster may have only lasted through 1986-87, but it was strong enough to teach me all about the emotional anguish that can arise from becoming too attached to any show that only comes on once a week. I'm done with revolving my life around being home on a certain night...and going insane when it inevitably gets cancelled or I'm forced to be elsewhere on My Night. It didn't take me long to learn that. Now I own 3 seasons of Punky Brewster, 6 of Star Trek: TNG and one of Roseanne...sheesh, all I need is a couple of Futurama and I won't even need cable anymore!

Aut-o-bots wage their bat-tle...to...de-stroy...the-e...vil-for...ces-of...the-De-cept-i-cons....

2007-08-03T09:06:00.000-04:00

Oh my goodness...looks like we've discovered what very likely could be Antonio's next big obsession when the Cars craze phases out...and Don has already bookmarked a whole bunch of old episodes on YouTube for him to watch. Which is a sweet thought, but the thing about YouTube is it's as simple for Tones to seek out classic Transformers episodes as it is for him to come across Optimus Prime's rectal exam from Robot Chicken or some expletive-laden overdub some teenager made in their spare time. It's a good thing the computer's in our bedroom.

Well, I'm ashamed to admit it...but I suck at the stay-at-home-mom thing. Tones has had 2 weeks holiday from daycare and I've run out of things to do with him. We've been going to the beach a lot, which is great. I just wish it was easier for us. I think the 2 of us could use up an entire bottle of #45 sunscreen in a week...and we still always get a little crispy. I don't care what they say, waterproof sunscreen is never totally waterproof. Tones & me always spend the whole time in the water...that's the only way to do the beach. Especially in this crazy weather. There's just something about diving in and getting your hair wet...it makes the whole trip worthwhile.

Tonight my work weekend starts again...and then we're going camping! I've been freaked out with all the rain we got in July, but so far they're only calling for light showers on the Monday and sun the next 2 days. I guess I can live with that.

Hey...did I mention one of my LO's is finally being published??? My "Freaky" Halloween page made it into the Fall issue of Canadian Scrapbooker! I know I had a copy of the Fall issue last year when we went camping, so I've been stalking the mailman for a week or so now. I submitted a few for the winter issue but haven't heard back. This week I made 2 new scrapbook pages, and finally got back some old ones from Scrapbooking Cafe. Also got my August kit for KC...now I just gotta get some pictures printed. Have a nice weekend, sweet dreams, and will someone please get the Transformers theme out of my head...?!?!

Christmas in July

2007-07-20T20:09:00.000-04:00

Well, I would start this with an apology for not updating since Easter, but then again, has anyone really missed me that much?!

I hate to admit it but I've been struggling with Scrapper's Block again. The thing is, I've been trying to perfect other areas in my life like spending more time with my guys and trying to pick up more shifts at work. There's no point in scrapping if I'm not creating memories worth preserving, and I can't maintain the art of preserving them with style if I have no extra cash to improve my stash with. I will still continue to scrap, and to seek new inspiration for scrapping, I just won't scrap away all my memories just yet. I've learned to appreciate the joys of not being "caught up".

Anyway, these are my most recent creations. For some strange reason all I feel like scrapping right now are old Christmas photos. Somewhere back on KC I got the idea of doing an all-Christmas album that spans the decades. I don't yet have pictures of EVERY Christmas since I was born, but I do know my parents' photo album closet like the back of my hand, and I KNOW that there ARE pictures in existence to make a complete album, 1978 to the present, with one page per year. Plus a title page. 1986 and 1987 we probably missed since those were the two years my dad went crazy with the cool Back-To-The-Future JVC video camera instead...but I'm a scrapper. I can improvise.

I'll leave now by saying I can't wait for Season 4 of Punky Brewster to come out on DVD, and I really wish the scrap world would stop saying things like "Don't be afraid to use girl embellishments on boy pages" and start inventing something other than more freaking flowers to decorate our pages with. Oh, to own my own scrap line....

He Is Risen

2007-04-09T11:29:00.000-04:00

Joyeuses Paques! It's Easter Monday...that still counts, right? We had a fabulous time yesterday with friends eating too much lunch, followed by a super fun egg hunt which saw three preschoolers leave with probably a kilo of chocolate each. Not to mention the chocolate monster truck the Easter Bunny left for Tones. Yes, nothing says "Jesus Is Alive!" like chocolate before breakfast.

Today I'm home with The Boy, and for the first time in 2 years, it's not an issue. Yes, I only work nights now and have been enjoying my newfound sanity for a month! All this free time during the day has come at the perfect opportunity...I am now an official member of the Kindred Creations Design Team! Just got back last weekend from the Mad Scrappers Retreat in Hamilton...also my longest ever road trip alone...where I met a whackload of other KCers, most of them for the first time! It was a lesson and a half in auto racing (I made it there in 4.5 hours!) and a social opportunity that I so rarely ever get the chance to experience. One of my layouts even won the layout contest the first night! Then Saturday's was won by another KCer...we were 2 for 3! Got a ton of pics...looks like this will have to be a mini-album! I miss them already...but then again, I do have CKC Buffalo this June to look forward to with my friends from Scrapbook Star!

And I got my hair cut & highlighted again! It was December 2004 last time anything was done to it...I'm loving how it looks, though I'm so not used to having bangs again. It's been a good chance to re-kindle my relationship with barrettes...now that my hair's not too heavy for them anymore. Now I can straighten it or leave it natural...and it curls up much more than it ever did before.

If you have a minute, check out the Scrapbooking Cafe website...one of my layouts is on the homepage!

I'm going to go hang out with Tones now. Enjoy what's left of your Easter holiday...if you're lucky enough to have it off!

Be My Turquoise Valentine

2007-02-14T08:11:00.000-05:00

Well, it's Valentine's Day again. Some people like it, some people think it's the most depressing day ever. Personally, being lucky enough to have married someone who turned out to be perfect for me, I'm about as OK with Valentine's Day as I am with any other holiday where you don't get a day off but gifts are implied. However there is one issue I do have with it, and that is RED. Red, red, red...EVERYWHERE you go. Now usually I don't mind red...I'm a fan of burgundy and love all harvest shades. But pure fire-engine red is a very powerful colour most effectively used as an accent, perhaps in a primary colour scheme or very dramatically against a combination of black and white. February rolls around...and suddenly every store is stocked floor to ceiling with RED stuff. I walked down an aisle in Dollarama the other day and I swear nothing for the whole length was anything but flaming bright red. For those of you familiar with the psychological effects of colour, it's commonly accepted that red is an angry colour. Here we are trying to shop for a day that's supposed to celebrate love, and the walls are screaming at us.

How long has Valentine's day been around? And anyhow, who was it that decided Crayola red was the only colour capable of representing love? Come on, everyone...we're more creative than that. Let's celebrate Valentine's Day in another colour for once. I nominate turquoise. Turquoise is an awesome colour and I'm glad to see it's finally making a comeback in the fashion and scrapbooking world. With that, here is my Valentine's Day layout...and I should also add this is my very first all-digital layout ever!

In my face

2007-01-31T08:09:00.000-05:00

OMG...we've gotten HGTV for the month my m-i-l is out, and Debbie Travis' Facelift is on. They're planning to re-do "one of the ugliest kitchens (she's) ever seen". And wouldn't ya know it...they have the exact same cupboards we do!!!!! Aaaaaackkkk!!! Nothing like rubbing it in!!!

I'm too I-don't-know-what-exactly to admit this IRL, but to put it lightly I'm having second thoughts about what we did to our cupboards. Turns out they needed FOUR coats of that freaking burgundy melamine, and still I think I can tell where the thicker strokes were made in the first coat. Those cupboards sat all over the floor for what felt like a week, while we got to re-enact that first scene of Raiders Of The Lost Ark every time we needed to walk through it. I'm positive more than one of them was stepped on by Antonio. I may have given them a 5th coat were I not so rushed to get my floor back. Despite tape, the wall still was such a mess after painting the underside of the cupboards that I needed to go along the whole thing with white paint again. And now that they're done...I can't help thinking we've gone in the wrong direction. Most people when re-painting old 70's cupboards go from a dark colour to a light colour...we've gone the opposite way. I want to say I'm OK with them, but in my mind I wonder if I'm forcing myself to like them because of the ordeal it was to get them painted. Maybe these plain cupboards just don't work in any colour. Oh well...Don says he likes them. That's a start.

Moving on to something more POSITIVE...I am finally quitting my job!!!!! I got an overnight rotation with the new place, so finally I have the stability I need to leave my old job. It's really the best thing for my sanity...and will leave my days open to pick up more shifts on call at the new place. Know what's crazy...instead of 5 days a week 4 hours a day, it's 2 overnights and an evening shift every second weekend...and my paycheque will be almost the same. Right now I'm still sticking it out in a very tense environment in my old job while she knows I'm leaving but I still have to work there, so I haven't really grasped the excitement of it all yet...but February is a short month. I'm looking forward to a life filled with less panic.

Colouring my world

2007-01-17T00:43:00.000-05:00

When we first moved into our new place, Don said we should wait till we lived here for a few months before we think about painting. Just so we're sure. Well now it's January, and we've started our painting binge. Actually I'm the one doing all the painting. But Don's the one doing all the Antonio diversions, so I guess we're doing our equal share. Me doing the stuff that takes creative skill, and Don doing the stuff that requires patience. Works for me.

So far we've done Antonio's room (crazy bright glaring Kermit-the-frog green), the living room (4 walls alternating dark blue and dark green), and tonight I started the kitchen cabinets. It was Don's idea to do the cabinets, I was just thinking the wall, but he had something aversive to off-white so whatever. So I find out in the store that you're supposed to use melamine paint for cabinets...ok, whatever. Guess I should have read the can before going home, but apparently melamine-based paint requires paint thinner for clean-up. And of course this never occurred to me until I'd already finished the first coat on all seventeen cupboards, laid out all over the living room floor on top of Sears flyers and our old Ikea shower curtain. It could have been worse...luckily I didn't make much of a mess (two rooms painted this month...I'm in practice now!) but I did have a crazy time trying to get the red off my hands (I ended up using body butter followed by apricot scrub). Also I'll be picking up a new set of foam brushes with my paint thinner tomorrow. Hope it comes off the laundry sink.

I saw those new Doodling Genies in Scrapbooking cafe. Lots of people are excited about those, but that's something I'd never buy. I like my own doodling just as it is. It's like that time I almost bought that Heidi Swapp date stamp, with all the dates in her handwriting...then I thought about it some more...and what's wrong with my own handwriting? I think this is why I don't get scrapbooking stuff for Christmas...I'm more a hoarder of the small stuff, not really into tools and gadgets. Recently the Cricut went on sale at Michaels and everyone seems to be flocking to get one. If I were to ever buy one of those cutting machines, I think I'd go with a Wishblade or Craft Robo or whatever I don't need to buy extra equipment for. But given the opportunity...I'd really rather have $500 worth of patterned paper and a good pair of nail scissors.

I was also browsing through some "dream scrap rooms" this morning. Some of them were pretty amazing. It would be a dream to even have my own scrap room. If I did...I would only have one table, and it would be really low, Korean-style or something. I'm a floor scrapper. My stool serves more time as a sanding/cutting surface than it does as a seat. Anyway I don't think I have any new LO's to post but check out the Scrapbooking Cafe link to see my DT projects!

Ready already!?

2006-12-22T21:39:00.000-05:00

3 more days till Christmas, and yet another overnight awake shift tonight...but I'm happy to say, most of my Christmas prep is done. I still have to cook of course, but all the shopping and wrapping is done. All the boards are dead tonight, probably because everyone's still trying to finish with their own stuff. I wonder who actually goes to those midnight madness shopping things. I guess lots of people do. Glad I'm not them.

I have discovered, though, that when you do your Christmas shopping early you tend not to stop. This morning I picked up a car-shaped paper punch from Scrapbooking Cafe for Antonio's stocking, and tonight I finished up an altered paint can for him...and filled it with art supplies. You just keep buying more stuff. It's not as stressful once everyone is bought for, but you still shop. OK, I do anyway.

Antonio's grandparents have sent out their gifts, and once again our tree is looking very well stocked. I'm so grateful for our family. When I think of how many problems people can have with theirs, I'm just glad we get along with ours. Especially at this time of year. Don't mind me...it's getting close to the 25th and I'm already getting sappy.

I'm going to leave a little early for my shift tonight as the roads are kinda crappy, but it's still not quite time. I enjoy the overnights actually. The day before is the hardest part...not knowing if you'll get a chance to nap, or if you'll be able to, or if you'll be able to keep your energy up. But I never seem to have a problem with it. It's quiet for the most part. Just cooking and cleaning, and there's just enough to do so you don't finish too far before the end of the shift...that's when you start to doze off. And I always have a song in my head. Generally I'm always singing a rotation of about 5, but usually it's 1 that keeps playing on repeat in my mind. Wonder what it'll be this week? Hmmm...that new Weird Al rap song has been running through my head a lot today...maybe that'll be it!

Countdown to Christmas

2006-11-29T22:30:00.000-05:00

Don's one of those people who get irritated when people put up Christmas decorations early...so our compromise is the first of December. In my anticipation I have already wrapped some gifts:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I gotta say...my parents ROCK. They just DO.

It's like a family tradition. My dad always happens to be working in the US till right around Christmas, and whatever my mom can't find in Canada, he picks up down there. In 1991 it was a Super Nintendo...we were the first kids on the block to have one! This year, he found IT. Yes, the ONE thing I've been looking for since August...the ONE thing Antonio says he wants...my dad found Flo's V8 Cafe in the first toy store he went into!!! Wahhooooooooooooooooo!!!

We broke in the fireplace and our new fireplace tools. And set off the smoke alarm too! I guess it's a pretty efficient way when all else fails to figure out if the flue is OPEN or CLOSED!

Baked some gingerbread cookies last week, and some PB cookies for Don yesterday...getting into the holiday baking mode now! We've almost finished our shopping but still have to put things together, get them wrapped and send them off.

Antonio's pinkeye is better but now he's got the 24-hour flu. At least, I HOPE it's only 24 hours!!! It breaks my heart to see him sick. I had him with me all day and once he had his Gravol he thought he was all better and wanted food, but I couldn't give him any...I couldn't even eat anything myself, I just felt too guilty!!! And of course, he was totally uninterested in the Pedialyte. Hope he's himself again tomorrow morning!

Made a couple more LO's recently, just for fun. One for a KC challenge, one for a personal challenge...I think the main reason I picked up some of those BG LilyKate papers last summer was because I wanted to force myself to come up with a way to use papers that appear impossible to incorporate into any LO. Because I knew that once I figured out that way, the results would probably be surprisingly stunning.

I think my new favourite scrapbook product line is My Mind's Eye. Holy freaking wow the Bohemia and Signature series...and the new Magnolia line Scrapbooking Cafe just got in...this stuff was totally made for me!!! But then again...who can ever pick a favourite?!

I can't believe I'm still talking about this....

2006-11-17T23:09:00.000-05:00

I decided after last week's choir practice that I'm giving up going early. I'm leaving to get there on time and relying on the power of prayer alone to find me a parking space.

So Antonio caught something from a kid at his daycare this week. Antonio actually doesn't get sick all that often, as kids go. But we got to spend Wednesday night in the walk-in clinic. Then on Thursday Don woke up with the same thing...so he went to the clinic straight from work, then I got to pick him up, and by the time we filled his prescription and I dropped them off, it was 7:18. Choir starts at 7:30. I took a deep breath, prayed to God to find me a parking space, and not only did I make every green light along the road to church, but lo and behold, right across the street from the church was an empty space on the edge of the street I could drive right into. Okay. I guess God wants me to stay in choir!!!

Tones is already feeling better...Don says he is too, but still sounds hoarse. I'm feeling fine. Just tired.

Antonio likes to watch this super adorable show on Treehouse called Wonder Pets, and they sing this cute little song...yet every time I hear it I can't help thinking it sounds a lot like "Underpants, Underpants, we're on our way..." don't mind me. I'm sleepy and my mind is grasping for silly stuff!

Warning: Petty Venting Ahead

2006-11-11T15:04:00.000-05:00

I'm soooo sorry, I just have to get this off my chest, as whiney and ridiculous as it probably sounds. But something needs to be done about the parking situation at choir practice. I shouldn't have to leave an hour early for somewhere a 10-minute drive away only to circle the block for 20 minutes in downtown Ottawa. By the time I actually find a space I've been cursing out loud to myself to the point where I've ruined my voice and any sense of spirituality I hoped to bring in with me. I try to be the person who can see the humour in everything, who doesn't let petty things irritate me, let alone ruin my whole evening...but parking is waaaaaay up there. I WANT to be in the choir. It has always been a source of inspiration in the past and a service to God in a way I feel I'm suited to...but Thursday nights have been more stress than inspiration, and in my extra busy schedule I'd be lying to say the thought of dropping it altogether hasn't crossed my mind. Lord forgive me that I let something like this stop me from enjoying something I have always loved in the past. But I know I'm not the only one in the choir who feels this way.

In lighter news, I have discovered a serendipitous new way to use my Xyron 150. I was in the middle of trying to put my Cosmo Cricket chipboard letters through it, and I guess Xyron doesn't like chipboard too much, because the adhesive paper tore in the process, and when I tried to pull it through, it tore right across, so that only the clear stuff was coming through. At first I thought I'd broken it, but then I realized the roll of adhesive paper underneath could now be unwrapped the same way as regular tape. So I just opened it out and stuck all my letters on it directly. It worked just as well, and in fact, wastes a lot less adhesive because you can position your letters closer together and don't have to tear any excess off at the end. Cool!!!

I haven't been called for any casual shifts this weekend and am relieved. I need this break. Don's out getting more blinds to put up in our windows...I don't know if I can count on one hand the amount of times he's had to return blinds over the past 24 hours for some reason or another. But he's like me...once he starts something, he's not going to let anything stop him from finishing it! Helpful hint: expect everything you buy from big home renovation stores to have at least one missing piece or pieces that don't work they way the instructions say they're supposed to.

I've realized also that scrapping on a DT is quite different from regular scrapping. You're still always trying to do your best work, but now there are more specific rules about what you can and have to use in your pages. And all of a sudden, I can't just say "whatever" when my printer decides to put streaks through everything...it's off the the photo console at Wal-Mart! No more dollar-store rhinestones, no matter how cool I think they'd look on my LSS page...if she doesn't carry it, I can't use it. Except for ribbon...whew! And one of the biggest differences is I feel like I'm spending so much more time scrapping, and can't post anything. Here I've included my Guest DT pages as I've already posted them over at KC, but I don't know when it'll be safe to post my Scrapbooking Cafe pages. I don't even know if they're up in the store yet, so I'm not going to post them until I know for sure it's ok...she hasn't said we couldn't post them elsewhere, but it would be the courteous thing to wait till they've had their stint in the store first. I even threw in an old LO at the top to break up the space. And because it seemed to go well with the topic.

Once upon a time...

2006-10-29T08:24:00.000-05:00

Rambo and an elf princess took a double-decker bus to the ball...

...and when all was done, the princess rode in her golden carriage to a Halloween crop. OK, so it was a Hyundai Accent. It was still gold.

She had a fabulous time and was super happy to break in her new DT kit.

Which, I must add, was totally spectacular this month. Not that it wasn't last month...but we really got spoiled this time. So I got this cool idea to make a mini-album out of my Cosmo Cricket chipboard box...and now have come to realize there are going to be more pages in it than there are days to finish it. So I've set a goal of one page at least per day...preferably more, as I'll still need time to put them in somehow, and alter the box itself. And make my 2 12 X 12's. Got one of those started this weekend...so far, so good!

It's lucky I got most of my KC Guest DT pages done before November started. Now all I have left to work out is ScrapQuest...which should be fun. Looking forward to it!

Here's some trick-or-treating pics:

The Stones reunion tour...uggggh

2006-10-22T23:51:00.000-04:00

So ya remember that crazy day of work I had ahead of me last time I was blogging? After I'd stayed up till 2 in the morning? It didn't happen. Why? A most unwelcome comeback. Another friggin' kidney stone!!!!!!! My only advice about those is DON'T freaking get them. This is the second time I've had one and I actually had to call the ambulance from work. I'm not going into any details about the pain or anything...other than to say when I was finally discharged from the hospital it was with a handful of prescriptions for painkillers and such. Don came down to see me and spent the whole day with me...he was absolutely amazing. Of course, he had to go through this with me last time as well, so I guess we both have practice.

Anyway...I don't really wanna talk about that anymore, other than to say I hope I passed it and don't have to deal with it anymore. It's Sunday and I feel ok, and haven't had any painkillers today...I have too many commitments right now to deal with this again...ummm, on second thought, no. It doesn't matter how many commitments you have. The laziest bum on the planet still doesn't have time to deal with kidney stones. No one does. Don't get them. On a brighter note, I had an awesome day in Montreal and then had an online crop at KC to post challenges to today as well. I even scrapped a layout just for FUN!!! Haven't done that in like a month!

About the only thing I did manage to get done on Friday was before work I dropped off my DT projects at Scrapbooking Cafe. Lucky I opted to do that FIRST...or I'd not have gotten them in at all. Now that that's done, and the crops are done, I can get into the Halloween costume making mode. I even started Antonio's double decker bus tonight. Need more duct tape.

What the 80's didn't teach me

2006-10-20T01:37:00.000-04:00

Just Say No.

Apparently I can't do it.

My first LSS DT projects (2 LO's and a set of altered cans) are due tomorrow (actually Saturday, but I'm cropping in Montreal all day). Oh, and also sketches, supply lists, and instructions for all 3. This morning, I still wasn't finished my last LO. Oh well, I planned to do it tonight and hand it in Friday afternoon no problemo.

Well, I got called in to work a 3-11 tomorrow. And I can't say no.

Okay...so I'll hand in my projects BEFORE I go to my morning job. We're still good.

So anyways, I'm sitting in the dealership waiting for my routine maintenance check, hoping to relax with a can of Pepsi and The Fellowship Of The Ring before I go pick up Tones. Suddenly, I get called in last minute for a 5-11 TONIGHT. And I can't say no.

Okay...so I'll just tell the on-call I'll be a few minutes late, call Don to tell him I'm out tonight, call Don back to get the number for church so I can call and get the number for the choir director to tell him I won't be there tonight for practice...the car's done...Tones is dropped off at home...and I'm on my way to work an evening shift when actually I should be scrapbooking! Oh well, I'll just finish up the last LO tonight, print off the instructions and supply lists (which thankfully I finished yesterday) and get those sketches finished up. Still cool.

So I get home and am all set for scrapping mode...and I realize I STILL HAVE THE KEYS FROM MY RELIEF SHIFT IN MY POCKET!!! And since it's a different house than I'll be in tomorrow evening, I can't just bring 'em back then.

Sooooo...I'm speeeeeeding back down into Ottawa and back again when I was hoping to be in my pj's watching Futurama while working on scrapbook sketches!!!

I still haven't finished planning out what pages I'm gonna work on for my Saturday crop, let alone even begun to think about packing for it.

It's almost 2 a.m. and I have to work from 10 to 2, then 3 to 11 tomorrow. Not to mention my regular client is probably not gonna be too impressed that I had to hang up on her today when she called me while I was trying to drive in traffic.

And I have a game to put together for the online crop at KC on Sunday.

Soooooo...what am I doing now?

I'm updating my BLOG!!!!!!!!!

October Rain

2006-10-11T22:08:00.000-04:00

Just like last year. Rain rain rain. I think it must have rained almost every day last October, and it's starting to look the same this year. Lucky I'm a BC girl at heart.

At least it was sunny and mild on Thanksgiving Monday. I had thought I'd be working, but found out on Friday that I wasn't...so I got to tag along with Don, Tones & some friends on a beautiful walk through Gatineau Park to Dairy Queen. Gatineau Park is HUGE...this was just a tiny corner where a trail goes from right by our place to a street by the DQ. All those multicoloured Ontario autumn leaves...milkweeds flying all over the place...all the sappy sentimental nature stuff that's fantastic to actually be among but crazy cliché to try and describe to anyone.

So it turns out it was the last day of the season for the DQ...they were taking down signs and putting up other ones with something to the extent of "see you next spring" on them, and they were totally out of vanilla soft serve. Which meant everything you got had to be made with chocolate instead. Oh, the humanity of it all!

There was a huge line up but we all got what we wanted and it was the perfect day for it. Then Tuesday it clouded over and has been like that ever since.

Finished another layout for my challenge on Friday...can't post it till then.

Squandered my allowance at the LSS again...surprise surprise.

Scored a victory for the I'm-a-pretty-cool-mom-after-all side yesterday...on my weekly visit to Toys R Us I found Sarge. The ONE Cars car my son needed to complete his Disney Cars collection...and I FOUND IT!!! He'll be going into the Christmas stash with Nitro-ade and Leakless...but the important thing is all 16 Cars cars are accounted for now!!! Yeahhhhhhhh!!!

Now, if only I could find Flo's V8 Cafe we'd be cruisin!

I'm off to bed. Sweet dreams all.

I gotta scrap.

2006-10-05T00:10:00.000-04:00

Literally.

I actually made up a scrapping to-do list the other night, and over the next 3 weeks I have 7 projects to finish--minimum. Two LO's and an altered project for Scrapbooking Cafe, two more challenges with LO's for KC, two Circle Journal pages...and I'm sure there'll be more too. Of course, it's really not THAT much when you consider I set my yearly goal at 150 LO's. I'm just not used to scrapping under a deadline...but so far I'm not in a panic yet. Just enjoying myself.

Some of them have been started already...and I'm happy with them so far. Here's a sneak peek at my October altered project for Scrapbooking Cafe:

If there was any illusion about shopping less now that I get DT kits...no, I don't think there ever was in the first place. Sure, the paper is just awesome...then you realize you need new ink to match the paper...and ribbon...and that's how it starts.

Meanwhile, after all this talk about "starting early", I still haven't started my son's Halloween costume yet. I have the box...that's all. I could be in trouble...now he says he wants to be a pick-up truck. Then yesterday I asked him again to see if he'd gone back to the double decker bus idea...and he said he wants to be Mack from Cars!!! Okay, okay...the double-decker bus I was willing to try...I thought it all out and saved a box...but a Mack truck??? Even if I made it...he'd never be able to walk in it! I think I'm at the point where I'm going to finish my scrap projects, ask him one more time, and whatever he says THEN will be what he gets. I'll probably try and negotiate him back to the double decker bus...being as that's what I was planning on already.

Ahhhh. Boys.

Double whammy!!!

2006-09-30T09:59:00.000-04:00

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...!!!

2006-09-18T00:35:00.000-04:00

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.....

2006-09-09T00:28:00.000-04:00

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....

2006-09-02T21:41:00.000-04:00

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:

All scrapped out

2006-08-30T22:58:00.000-04:00

Whew. I'm exhausted. I just e-mailed in my submission for the DT call at my LSS. 8 LO's, 3 altered projects, an essay and a bio...why am I so nervous??? In related news, there are but 24 hours left to get the call for the Scenic Route DT...hey, a girl can dream, right??? Here's a new page I made yesterday.

I actually joined ScrapSubmit last week and submitted one page to a magazine already! One small step for scrapper...well, we'll see if I get any e-mails about it. I have decided if I am going to start submitting layouts for publication, I'm not going to let page calls dictate my style or scrap habits. If I happen to make a page that works for a particular call, I may just send it in. But I'm not about to start nitpicking about neatness and stuff...I already spend so much time scrapping that I can't keep my house neat. You should see it after finishing up all my DT submission projects!!!

Oh, and another cool thing happened last weekend...for the first time in our 8 years of marriage, we went camping together! Just for the weekend, with some friends of ours and their kids, but I really think we all needed that. I mastered the art of perfect marshmallow roasting in the dark and Antonio slept beautifully in the tent. It was a tad chilly, this not being BC where it's still summer till mid-October, but the lake wasn't swimmable anyway so whatever. Very beautiful though! Here's some pictures:

I start early.

2006-08-21T17:03:00.000-04:00

Just like the stores do. It's quite standard for me to be planning out Halloween costumes in August. What can I say? I like to make my own, and that takes TIME. Especially when your son comes up with the strangest costume ideas. Last year was the first year we let him choose his own costume. He said he wanted to be a cat...a green cat. And it wasn't just a one-time deal. Every time we asked him, he was adamant about the green cat. So that's what he was. This year he says he wants to be a double-decker bus...NOW do you see why I like to start early??? I have no clue how I'm gonna pull this one off...well, making it's the easy part. Making it something he can WALK in...that's another story.

And yes, I dress up too. Since I started trick-or-treating, there have only been 2 Halloweens I didn't dress up for, both to my disappointment. Sometimes for work, sometimes for school, sometimes for taking kids around, wheher my own or someone else's...I love to dress up! I've been everything from Princess Jasmine to Axl Rose to that girl from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom...that one was when I was 7. I was the only girl in my entire Brownie troop that no one could guess what my costume was. As a rule I don't normally like to do the same costume twice in a row...but last year during my Fabricland days I managed to recreate my favourite dress from the Lord Of The Rings movies as a sort of sewing project...complete with cape and hood...and I would so love to wear it again. Plus it'll give me more time to work out a double-decker bus!!!

Having said that, I don't totally understand why STORES need to start as early as they do. If you're buying your costume premade, why do you need it 2 months in advance? Or candy and decorations for that matter? Unless you're one of those people who re-does their whole house for Halloween. Where do you people live? I wanna trick-or-treat at your place!!!

We did it! (insert Dora music here)

2006-08-16T18:39:00.000-04:00

That's right. The mortgage has finally gotten final approval, and the house is OURS!!! In Quebec you can move in as soon as you make the down payment, so we still had stuff to finish up even after we moved in. But it's all done now. All we gotta do is pay the bills and not trash the place. Yeah!!!!!

We went out to the Chinese buffet to celebrate. They have different stuff on weekday nights than they do during lunchtime. Tried these little mini-pizzas that were actually made on what looked like wontons...they were actually pretty good! Not to mention this is one of only the 2 places we've found in the Ottawa/Gatineau area that has acceptable sushi.

Bought Antonio's birthday gift the other day...the Cars computer game. Shhhhhh, don't tell him. Oh, and I bought something for myself too. No, it's not MY birthday...but I finally found a copy of Punky Brewster Season Three on DVD!!! Yes, THIS is the extent of my wild and colourful life...getting giddy over box sets of 80's TV shows. But hey, Punky was one of my very first obsessions...I practically WAS her. Hey, who am I kidding, WAS???

Looks like another Wednesday has come and gone and we still haven't gotten rid of these boxes in the front hall. Arrrrrg. Don knows someone who wants them, but he only sees him on Wednesday nights. I never thought I'd ever say this, but I actually want to start organizing things in my house! Yep, you heard it from me. But don't expect it to become a habit.

Say it with pictures, Episode II

2006-08-12T11:02:00.000-04:00

And the tour continues....

The laundry room. Also the storage room. Bigger than you'd expect in a condo, but not as much storage space as our last apartment, so it's a bit cramped. Can't complain, because it saves us a lot of elevator riding.

Our room from the doorway. I tried to take one of the whole window but the flash was arguing with me.

My scrap area, set up in our room. Pretty much the same as the old one but with more natural light. As you can see I've already been scrapping.

This is what you see out of our big bay window. Beyond those trees is Gatineau Park. You can also see Antonio's playground. He loves that.

Antonio's room. Quite a bit smaller than his last room, even without the slidey climber thing, even with the second storage room shelf. I think it's high time to donate some of his old toys. He doesn't seem to mind, though...hey, there's a playground out back!!!

And that's our new place. We're still loving it, though I'll be loving it more when we get rid of all the empty boxes in the front hallway, and actually get stuff on the walls. Don doesn't want to put stuff up till we're totally sure we have things arranged the way we like them, and we can't really arrange things the way we like them till we get rid of all these BOXES...oh well, there's time.

Say it with pictures

2006-08-07T15:41:00.000-04:00

So here's your tour of the new place. I won't bother to apologize for the mess, 1) because we just moved, 2) because I'm fostering no illusion that the place would be any neater if we hadn't, and 3) because on the off chance that you're a clutterbug like myself and don't find this that much of a disaster, it won't give you any insecurities!

This is the view from out our front window. You can see our tree, and also our car (next to the red one).

Our living room setup.

Our computer desk/digital piano. This frees up the old computer desk for use as my sewing table. This was Don's stroke of creative genius and not my own...as much as I'd like to lay claim to the idea.

The hallway from the front entrance.

The kitchen. We've been living for over a week here and still haven't used the dishwasher. I guess living without one for a while forces one to learn not to dirty an entire cycle's worth of dishes within a day. BTW those ones in the rack are CLEAN!

Somehow I can't seem to get any more pictures on here today, so that's it for now.

Dreaming beneath the branches

2006-07-31T22:32:00.000-04:00

Saturday morning I awoke with trees outside my big bay window. The air was moist and you could feel it on your skin, and you could smell the forest...it felt like we'd been camping. But it was just our new house.

I can not properly express how much in love I am with this new home. Windows on both ends...a through draft and more natural light. Antonio doesn't have the cars out his window anymore, but he does have a playground...and it's not quite the drop it was at the last place. You can see the path, the field, the forest at the edge of Gatineau Park...and all night long at a surprisingly loud volume...crickets. Lots and lots and lots of crickets. They've been singing each night since we first slept here.

We have a real kitchen. We have our table in there. We have a dishwasher and a food pantry!
We have a woodburning fireplace and a mantle.
We have trees outside the front and back windows.
We have big closets. And a linen closet...in the bathroom!
We have a blue tiled shower and taps that work well.
We have our own laundry room with a handwashing sink!
And a playground. A place for Tones to ride his bike.
A Dairy Queen just down the street.
Shopping and a movie theatre a 3 minute drive away!
A parking space you can walk to in under a minute...no extra keys required.
And it's nice and cool inside...even when the oven is on...because the kitchen is separate!

We shopped at the Loblaws on Sunday morning, and found a printer almost exactly like the one we have, only it was on sale for $57!!! Had to pick that up, being as we'd allotted some of my parents' housewarming money for that purpose anyway...now we'll just have more to spend on other things like a ceiling fan and new curtains...which I can't wait to start making!!!

This place really feels like home. I love it here. This is probably normal for a new homeowner, they probably call it the honeymoon phase or something like that, whatever. I just feel more at peace than I have in a long time. This isn't just some concrete shoebox to keep furniture in, this is OUR home. And no concrete walls either!

And it's so easy on frazzled nerves to fall asleep to a chorus of crickets and wake up with nothing but green leaves out your window.

I like to move it move it....

2006-07-26T20:16:00.000-04:00

Friday is The Day. Looks like our crazy weekend of faxing back and forth with my parents actually paid off...Monday night we made our down payment, and were handed The Key!!! So for 2 days, I've been using the window of time between when work finishes and when Tones needs to be picked up, to start moving things. You know, stuff like coats and lamps, and those inevitable odd-shaped decorations that don't fit into any normal sized box. Today I lucked out...brought up a shopping cart to my apartment, and someone had left one on the 15th floor too, so I filled BOTH of them and transported a good haul today.

Then I got a call on my cell...looks like I landed another relief job!!! All right!!!!!

I started to make poutine for dinner only to realize I packed all my baking sheets. Arrrrrg. So I had to cook my fries in 2 casserole dishes instead. No biggie. It was still delicious.

I gotta say, last week and *most* of the weekend were VERY stressful. There's a reason I couldn't sleep and wasn't hungry. Monday I was even having shortness of breath, which I never have gotten before. Getting the keys on Monday night certainly was a big relief.

However, Saturday was a break from it all when I met a new friend Lynne from Kindred Creations and also her friend Carr, for an all-day cropping event! I also found out on Sunday that THIS LAYOUT of mine:

...won the very first Scrapper Of The Week contest at Scrapbooking Cafe's new website! Which entitled me to 10% off everything I buy this week. Lynne was kind enough to e-mail me and tell me they were having a 50% off sale, so Monday I headed on down only to find out it was 50% off EVERYTHING in the store...and therefore 60% for me!!! I took the opportunity to reload on rub-on alphas and 3 cans of KI Alphabet Soup...that stuff is so cool and I could never afford to do this any other time!!! Needless to say I'm in major need of letters for my layouts as I have often depended on my computer to help me in that department...and our printer has gone on us.

What else is cool...Lynne mentioned to me about another new and awesome scrapbooking website called Scrapbook Star and it's based in Montreal. So I go over to check it out...and not only are there a lot of familiar KC faces, but one of the new DT members is my friend Kris from Alberta...my son's godmom, actually! How cool is that?! And to top it off, it's my very first week there and my contest-winning layout has also been chosen as the featured page of the week on the Scrapbook Star homepage!

I'm feeling a lot more relaxed this week. So much good has happened, and I regret that I was feeling so stressed out when itall began that it's taken this much to pull me out of it. I can't wait to get settled in our new place and start scrapping again!!!

Insomnia and insanity

2006-07-21T03:21:00.000-04:00

This is the second night in a row I've woken up at 2 a.m. and can't get back to sleep. I tried my hardest not to fall asleep at 9 lastnight but I was falling asleep on the couch before my son was even asleep in his room. I knew this was going to happen. Well, tomorrow's my day off so maybe if I have an afternoon nap I'll stay up till midnight and all will be well again.

Oh, and by the way, all of a sudden we're moving.

We've been through it all before...found the perfect condo last March, were all ready to make the offer but found out our building doesn't allow you to leave your lease early unless you find another tenant to replace you. We decided that was too much of a gamble so we just let it go. Then Don got the idea that we'd try to find a condo again, only this time make our offer "pending a lease assignment" for our current place.Found another place we fell in love with, made the offer, and the guy gave us 45 days and we figured if it happens it happens, if not we'll just try again in December when our lease is up. No more than a day after I informed the office that we were looking, someone decides they wanna come in the following afternoon to look at our place. Nothing like an evening of speed-cleaning in a very much lived-in apartment!!! But it was all worth it...for the very next day, the lady from the office told us they were going to take it!!! Only catch...they needed to move in the last weekend of July!!!!!!!!!

I don't even wanna get into how crazy this week has been. Legal documents, endless phonecalls, faxing stuff back and forth with my parents, confusion over the actual weekend the new tenants are moving in...I have had it. I suppose it's better to get all the stress over with at once, but mannnn it's no small feat to still be in the middle of it all. I haven't slept right or eaten a decent meal in 2 days.

Thank goodness our parents are so generous. If it wasn't for them we'd never have the money to do this. The timing actually worked out pretty well, because my Gran's house in Toronto just sold a couple weeks ago. Which is an emotional upheaval of its own...having just lost her last year and all...but I suppose this is about as appropriate a cause as any for the money to go towards.

And it is a really nice place. I knew it was meant for us when I noticed the bathroom tiles matched our towels. Now if only I can talk Don out of keeping that flaming red shower curtain!!!

tall dreams and hobbit legs

2006-07-03T22:57:00.000-04:00

Ever notice how some days seem better as a memory than they actually were at the time? Today was that. I decided to take Tones on a walk to McDonalds for lunch--play in the Parc Ronald, pick up a Cars Happy Meal and use up those GC's I had. But instead of just going to the one that actually WAS walking distance...hey, why not go all the way to Gatineau?! It's only a 6 minute drive, and that one has the big playground inside it...sure, it's a longer walk, but we just hiked a trail in the Gatineau hills yesterday, surely we could hike to the Gatineau McDonalds. It's not too far from the bridge anyway, right?

When you're DRIVING.

How conveniently I forget to factor in that the road to Gatineau is typically driven at 90 km/h, and that much of the park path is in broad, shadeless sunlight. I don't really remember how we did it, though it must have been a combination of multiple "oh it's just around that corner"s combined with numerous "oh we can't turn back we're halfway there"s. We were a mass of sunscreen and sweat when we finally walked in, slightly over 2 hours later, only to discover the a/c was not working in the Parc Ronald, they were out of ice cream, and they weren't doing the Cars. That is not to say we didn't have a nice lunch, we just didn't eat dessert and I had to sit at a table just outside the Parc Ronald while Antonio played, though he was not as hyper as he normally is for obvious reasons.

The worst part of a longer-than-expected walking trip is knowing you have to do it all over again to get home. I felt so guilty making Antonio do that walk twice...we must have walked 5 miles total. That's a lot when you're not even 4.

However the trip back was a little less stressful. We stuck more to the park path rather than following the highway, and at Antonio's request we stopped to sit in the grass a few times. Then as we approached the most exposed stretch of the journey, God in His mercy shaded us with a raincloud. And though it was thundering by the time we reached the roads again, we didn't get rained on. Though in many ways I kind of wish we had been.

Don even got home before us. We had left before noon and returned by 5:30. Point taken. But in hindsight I'm glad I have the breezy walk down the forest path to keep me from remembering only the sweaty march down the gravel shoulder when I think of today. There's something very dreamy about being surrounded by trees. I still promised Antonio we'd take the car next time.

It's still Canada Day for the next 27 minutes

2006-07-01T23:36:00.000-04:00

Today was, in hindsight, an awesome day. We babysat Don's friend's boy this morning, and he & Tones always have a blast since they see each other every day at daycare too. Then the 5 of us walked to the Canada Day thingy in downtown Ottawa. I've already made it clear what I think about crowds, but for some reason it didn't get me down today. I think they're more tolerable when you go in expecting them. Also when you have people to talk to it eases the tension. I don't get nearly enough social activity in my life.

Anyway we sat on the grass for a bit, walked through that park the Tulip Festival is always held in, Antonio painted the hubcap of a Volkswagen van, then we came home and went for a swim out back. Then Don made a delicious dinner of what I assume was taco poutine, and I even had time to scrapbook before the fireworks started. That page is not quite ready for posting here, but here's one I made yesterday for an Effer dare:

To top it all off, we were half expecting it to rain all day, but it held off till about an hour after the fireworks ended. Very sweet. I gotta say, this five-day weekend has been so relaxing on my nerves. Don and I actually had 2 dates this week!!! We both had Friday off but Antonio still had daycare, so we went to a yummy Chinese buffet and saw Superman Returns. I miss having this kind of time with him always, because the less time you have the more of it has to be spent talking about stuff you hafta instead of stuff you wanna. But now with 2 people at work...I'm hoping we'll have more of these kind of opportunities!

Woohoo, 5 day weekend!

2006-06-29T21:36:00.000-04:00

Wow. Things sure feel different now that a second person has been hired at work. Now suddenly I can take a day off when I'm sick...and I don't have to work on the Canada Day holiday!!! Which is fortunate, because Antonio's daycare teacher doesn't work on it either!

So yesterday I had the 24-hour flu. I don't know if it's related to what Antonio had at Cars or what Don had the whole first week we were away, but I really hope it wasn't the sushi we had on our anniversary night...that was the best sushi I've had in Ottawa, in fact it's the ONLY good sushi we've had in Ottawa and I want to be able to go back there again!!! It couldn't have been though, because Don had the exact same dish I had and he was fine.

Ironically, I had to go into work yesterday because I couldn't be replaced on such short notice, but she gave me today off just to be safe and I was fine. Figures. But it was nice to have a free morning to do laundry and mop the floor...and take a wee visit to the local scrapbook store!!!

The girl says the rumoured Gatineau LSS will hopefully be opening by early September. And apparently another lady's wanting to open up one in Hull too...this is too good to be true...but also a little scary. I'm already spending too much at the LSS when it's half an hour outta my way in either direction. Now they're plunking one down on the road to my son's daycare and now a second...that may be within WALKING DISTANCE??? Maybe I should rethink working on holidays...ummm...no. Maybe not. I somehow managed to resist the new Prima box set...the colours were totally stunning and sooooo me but I convinced myself I just don't use enough flowers in my layouts to make it worth being in debt over. As always Im sure I'll kick myself for it later. Anyway here's a page I scrapped yesterday. I've been out of it for a month, but having a broken printer is a real damper on the scrap mojo. No personally edited pictures, no handcut letters, no computer journalling...arrrrrrg. It's like trying to go back to the horse and buggy. Not that I would mind that after the traffic I got stuck in today...but let's not even go that direction!!! These are the first of my totally 80's retro pics which I spent many long hours scanning from my parents' photo albums during my holiday. My mom doesn't scrapbook, so there's nothing wrong with scrapping my own childhood photos, right?
Here's the page I made this afternoon. This was super duper fun to make. These are actually just a set of Sandylion stickers I found in the card aisle at Wal-Mart. They do have a separate line of Cars 3d Jolee-type stickers in the LSS but these were more the feel I was going for. I've actually had them since the beginning of June and have been waiting to make this page for a month. That's what a broken printer forces upon you...otherwise I'd have had it done before I even left for holiday!!!

Hoping new pictures and new stash will spark some new mojo and I'll be back in the groove again soon.

zoom zoom zoom

2006-06-24T12:24:00.000-04:00

Just got back from my holiday in Abbotsford with The Boy. I could use that as an excuse for why I haven't been updating, but the truth is I had ample internet access out there and just don't see much point in daily updates when I can count on one hand the amount of people who I've actually told about this blog.

Anyway I won't spend paragraphs describing all the cool stuff we did on holiday. I specialize in doing a lot of nothing and making it sound like everything. Suffice it to say that I love my family very very much and have a lot to be thankful for.

I absolutely can not believe how much Cars stuff you can get in the stores these days. Die-cast Cars, remote-control Cars, radio-control Cars, ride-on toddler Cars, big Cars, small Cars, Cars bathroom products, Cars cookies, they even have Cars lip balm!!! If it's a kid's product, you can bet there's a Cars version available right now. And Antonio now possesses a whole bunch more of it. The crazy thing is we came back with 2 more bags than we arrived with, mostly Cars stuff, and he doesn't even have half of what's actually available. This was a stroke of genius for Disney. Whoever came up with the idea for this movie must have had a son.

A different day than expected

2006-06-10T22:25:00.001-04:00

Today was a day we've been psyched about for literally 2 years. Ever since we first found the trailer for Disney's Cars back in 2004...we knew this would be the coolest thing that could ever happen to a 3-year-old boy...especially ours, who has drooled over anything with wheels since before he started teething. With help from his grandmas, he's been equipped with a Cars poster, a Cars flashlight, 2 Cars books, a Cars T-shirt & shorts set, 3 sets of Cars stickers and 9 Cars cars to play with...all BEFORE the movie was even released. He already knew all the names of the cars, and has been playing on the Cars website for weeks. I even had DH pick up the tickets yesterday to ensure our choice of time and save us the waiting.

And I was going to scrapbook it all. I bought an extra set of stickers for myself. I packed my camera to bring to the theatre. I made sure his new Cars outfit was clean for today. I've been pondering what the layout title should be for weeks...never able to come up with anything that quite accurately captures the excitement my son shows for the whole Cars phenomenon.

So what happens? He wakes up...with a FEVER!!!!!!!

He didn't even have it first thing...it kind of came on after he fell asleep the second time, before he got up for breakfast. All he wanted to do was sleep. Admittedly...my heart was broken! And we'd gone and bought all 6 tickets already, because we were going with friends and all. What to do?

Here's where I bet a lot of moms might shake their fingers at me. We took him anyway. He was sort of up and down throughout the day, as if he himself was torn between being tired and really wanting to see the movie. He had seemed (and said he felt) better by the time we were in the car. Then he threw up all over his Lightning McQueen shirt & shorts. Well, there are a few things we could have done here. But as his parents, we made the choice that was most US. We asked him if he still wanted to see Cars. Yep. So DH went to Walmart and got him a fresh outfit, we changed him, and we went to see Cars. And we all loved it. DS sat through the whole thing, totally absorbed, actually making comments on it! And by the time we left, he felt a good deal better.

I'm always doubting my decisions. But I will say this. I have never been the kind of person to let illness screw up my plans. If I gotta do something, I'm gonna suck it up and just do it, whether or not I feel totally "up to it". Because when given the choice, I ALWAYS regret NOT doing something, but I NEVER regret DOING something. I want my son to grow up the same. And as his mum I can tell ya he would have been seriously upset if we'd missed seeing Cars today, after we've been talking about it all week.

So that was our interesting, slightly different-than-expected day, but the bottom line is the movie ROCKED and WE ALL HAD FUN!!!

Crowds suck

2006-06-09T18:52:00.000-04:00

I can't deal with crowds. It sucks. They make me edgy and nervous, then everyone in them gets to see how edgy and nervous I am at close proximity. Ugh. Maybe I am just a snob.

I mean, I suppose I can handle them if I EXPECT them to be there. Like last Tuesday, I took my son to the indoor playground at 10:30 a.m. and it was like totally dead there. In fact by 11 we practically had the whole park to ourselves, because the only kids that were there were babies in the toddler area. Friday morning, same time...and it's freakin' MOBBED. Yuck. I almost thought I wasn't gonna find parking...if I hadn't found that one last spot I'd have just said forget it. Which is totally lousy on my behalf, and I'd have regretted it...but crowds and parking are wayyyyyy up there on my stress list.

Anyway we got in and he had a great time with his friend, and I had a nice chat with her mom. That's the beauty of Cosmic Adventures...playtime for the kids...alone time for the adults!

I wish it wasn't raining this weekend...not that I don't like the rain, it reminds me of living in B.C....but Cars is premiering tonight, and we're planning to see it tomorrow, and having said that I don't do well with crowds, now not only are we up against everyone with a little boy but everyone else who's just going because it's rainy. Looks like we'll be buying online in advance!

Late night for all

2006-06-08T00:17:00.000-04:00

Day 2 of blog world. I still haven't figured out how to do much with this...there was once a time when I spoke HTML, but it's coming back almost as slowly as my French...and I've been living in Quebec for more than a year now. Practice, baby, practice.

I'm in the midst of 3 weeks' holiday, trying to figure out what to do with myself (hmmm...wonder if that's how I ended up starting a blog finally!!!)...anyway, the stay-at-home mom thing does not come easily to me so I've tried to plan stuff for us to do every day so we don't both go stir-crazy and drive each other insane...I don't know who is more hyper, me or my 3-year-old son!!! He actually stayed up till midnight today! What happened was he ended up taking a late nap, then woke up at 9:30 p.m. So we let him stay up...we're on holiday, and tomorrow we have no plans till his friend comes over at noon. Could've been worse...he could've slept right through then woken up at 3 in the morning!!!

Well, it's 12:41 and I'm not at my brightest. Getting harder to listen to the TV and blog at the same time. Better post and shut up before I start babbling.

Sweet dreams!

Yet another addition to my state of constant self-distraction

2006-06-07T08:22:00.000-04:00

Ok...I'll give it a go!

I will warn you, before I start typing away, that kids in my elementary school back in the 80's were never tested for ADHD and that sort of thing...and while I've been through all sorts of lovely titles such as "gifted" and "creative" and "fidgety"...be forewarned that my style of talking does involve a lot of straying from topic to topic as the hormones dictate. Which may suit you better, if your attention span has been shortened from all that cool 80's TV. Have fun!

I don't know how this is going to work out for me. I see the benefits of keeping a journal (though for some reason I haven't ever bothered to since I was 12, except the one I did of my pregnancy and a few pages in Korea), but to my understanding and experience, actually having someone READ your journal is supposed to be the scariest freaking moment in any kid's life. In fact, don't they make some of them with little deadbolts right on the front and all? And here we are evolved to BLOGGING...where instead of locking it up, you post it on the WWW for every freak, weirdo, and other such people like myself to snoop through!!!

So like I said, I don't know how this will work out. I don't know what the etiquette is on how often you're supposed to update or anything. I can't promise I'm always gonna have something creative to say. And I can't promise you will actually be seeing into my head...which is probably a good thing...it's way too disorganized in there!!!...but blogs are apparently public literature so my self-conscious nature probably won't let me reveal EVERYthing that I would were this a regular self-indulgent padlocked journal.

Thank you for coming. Sweet dreams.