Three contests in one! July 31, 2011

Happy last day of July!

I follow several blogs, all of them about scrapbooking, of course! Two of my favourites are Scrapping Everyday Miracles and Use it Tuesday. And I just discovered a new one that looks awesome: Clear it out Challenge. The first blog is about exactly what is in its name – the little things we should appreciate that we sometimes take for granted. The second blog is one that challenges scrappers to use up some of their hoarded scrappin’ supplies! Every second Tuesday, they suggest at least one item that you can use in your layout. And the third one, well, its name is also descriptive – clear out your supplies! So I decided to combine challenges/inspirations from each of these blogs into one layout.

Scrapping Everyday Miracles showed a magazine cover as inspiration. Well, this one was easy, because I love lime green and blue! And the second one, well that was easy too, because Lord knows I have a ton of hoarded items!!! The challenge from Clear it out Challenge was ‘anything goes’. So check out my layout in response to these three challenges.

Just to say a bit more about this layout … in terms of ‘everyday miracles’, of course the two ‘back to school beauties’ on this layout are two of MY miracles … my girls, Shelby (bottom) and Sydney (top). There are some days that I may not think of them as miracles … ha ha, just kidding! For Use it Tuesday, the hoarded items I used were the ribbon – can’t even remember when I bought it, so I was glad to finally be able to put it to use, and the metal clover leaf embellishment {which has also been kicking around for awhile, as has the white flower/swirly rub-on in the top corner of Sydney’s photo}. So I suppose I used THREE hoarded items – yay, me! I quite like how this layout turned out. Since ‘anything goes’ for Clear it out Challenge, I don’t need to mention anything specific. But I would just note that in addition to using up old hoarded supplies, I did use some newer items too (paper and the Clear Cuts frame behind Shelby’s picture) – and I think that’s good because if you use it sooner after you buy it, it doesn’t become a hoarded item :-).

Much of this weekend has been spent sorting into years my big blue bucket of pictures. Layer upon layer of photos from every year you can think of, all mixed together. Sigh. Actually, for the most part, I enjoyed going through the photos. Especially the ones of when the girls were really little. They are very photogenic, and what can I say – they are pretty darn cute! And they did some funny and crazy things. I am so grateful that we had the camera handy a lot and captured many of the moments. So I am almost finished sorting the last two decades of photos. It will feel really good. And then, I need to scan all of the negatives. That’s gonna be a whopper of a project. But I just need to get started, and then I can chip away at it.

Off to finish supper for the fam. Then I think we will head out for a walk – looks gorgeous out there!

How can it be the end of July already?!! July 29, 2011

Happy Friday!

Another gorgeous summer day out there, and of course with heat comes storm warnings. There isn’t anything happening in Saskatoon yet, but we will see what the evening brings. The summer is flying by. In some ways, that is okay. Fall will bring routine and, hopefully, calmness in some aspects of my life. But then again, WINTER will come too! And trust me, I am in ABSOLUTELY NO. HURRY. FOR. THAT!!!

So … in my last post (long ago, now), I said there was big news in our family. Some of you guessed it: we are now the proud owners of a puppy! Sydney has been wanting a dog for a VERY. LONG. TIME. So we bit the bullet. We adopted Stella Ella Ola (Stella for short!) three weeks ago. She is a miniature poodle, cream coloured. Tomorrow, she will be 12 weeks old. What a little sweetheart she is! Check her out:

 

 

 

She is very well behaved and mild mannered and LOVES Sydney to pieces {the feeling is mutual!}. The only problem we are having is that she poops on our living room area rug – the only rug upstairs! But we’ll continue to work on that. So that is our big news. Now, for some scrappin’ …

Here is the layout that I did for The Moments Fast Track Friday challenge tonight. It came together fairly quickly and I enjoyed it a lot. A bit of a different colour combo.

I have a ‘date’ with my cousin Gail this Sunday to scrapbook. She hasn’t done this before (or much), so I am looking forward to imparting some of my knowledge {or should I say craziness!} about this craft. Since Monday is a holiday and we get an extra-long weekend, I am hoping to get some good scrappin’ time in! Oh, and my other exciting news (probably not too exciting for anyone but me!) is that I started sorting my big blue bucket of pictures. I am sorting them by year and putting them into photo boxes, noting the year and event on the back (with a photo safe pen, of course :-). I’ve spent about four hours so far and got quite a bit accomplished, so it doesn’t seem quite so overwhelming now.

Have a LOVELY weekend!

Honouring family July 13, 2011

Greetings!

Two days ago, on July 11, I gave my sister, Penny, a little chipboard album for her birthday. All of my sisters are special, and Penny is extra- special – as a sister, sister-in-law, and auntie to my two girls (and all of our other nieces and nephews). And she is just a special person in general. We all love her to bits. Family is really important to her, so I thought I’d whip her up a little album to honour her family values. Take a look:

Hope you enjoyed this. Back more with my next project soon.

Sketchy Thursday 7.7 Challenge July 10, 2011

I am excited to do my first Sketchy Thursday challenge. If you aren’t familiar with this blog, check it out here! Below is my take on the 7.7 Challenge … a lot of fun!

In this single-page layout, I used the following products: paper from We R Memory Keepers (Hippity Hoppity ‘Easter Tree’, Out and About ‘Gridlock’, and Merry & Bright), Making Memories chipboard border, Vintage frames, Karen Foster Design scrapper’s spools (LOVE this product!), love elsie gel sticker, and K&Company chipboard stickers.

I’ll be back soon with more to say … big exciting news in our household … can you guess what? 🙂

Happy Sunday scrappin’!

TGIF! July 8, 2011

Good evening!

 

It is an absolutely stunning day out there today … what a week we had for holidays, sure know how to pick ’em! Today brings to a close our vacation; well, not until Sunday, I suppose, but today is the last work day. Speaking of working, we are working to get a dog for Sydney. Before we walked into the SPCA today, I asked her if she was ready for this. She said, ‘yeah, I’ve been ready for like two years!!!’. She is ready, that is for sure. Unfortunately, that avenue didn’t pan out, at least today, so we are still looking.

 

On a sad note, my Auntie Marge passed away yesterday after a long and courageous battle with nasty cancer. While we may not have been ready to let her go, she was ready. I was thinking about her today and imagining her in heaven with her husband, Eddie, who passed away quite a few years ago now, also from cancer (jeez, I hate that disease). And she is with my mom and dad too … and they are all having quite the party! And they are watching over those of us still here on earth living our lives. Thank you, all!

 

A few weeks ago, I think I mentioned that I was going to try ‘Friday Fast Track’, which is an online challenge hosted by The Moments blog. They post a sketch at a certain time and you have two hours to complete it and submit your version. I tried previously to do this but was not successful. But this time, it worked!!! See below for the sketch and then my interpretation. I kinda like the way it turned out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s all for tonight. I hope to still do some more scrappin’ before I officially go back to work on Monday, but we will see. We have completely let the house go while we have been playing :-). Penny and Craig will be coming here on Sunday, and I am TOTALLY excited to see them, since it’s been awhile. Penny continues her gracious and determined battle with the nasty disease too, and she’s got another medical appointment here. She knows the roads between Shaunavon and Saskatoon so well that she could practically drive with her eyes closed (but that might not be such a good idea!!).

 

Have a lovely evening, and I hope you will visit again soon.

Summer scrap storm July 7, 2011

Happy Thursday!

I have been continuing to scrap up a storm over the last day and a half. I’m scrapping our summer vacation to Drumheller … from 2008. What a weird time to do this! But I had some really cute photos of the girls that I wanted to work with, and given the weather outside, I can think of nothing but summer!!! Check out the three layouts I did.

I absolutely LOVE the way the pages of the girls posing as a preacher turned out! I have been pushing myself outside of my usual box and using products that I haven’t tried before. My new favourite brand is Maya Road … that’s the brand of the Kraft tickets that I used on the bottom LO. And I don’t use special-shaped paper very often, but on these LO’s, I used two circles (one scalloped), a scalloped square, a ripped-out notebook page, and a postage stamp. I like mixing stuff up a little for a change! Another of my current favourite products is scrapper’s spools from Karen Foster Design, especially the natural colour. I used it at the bottom of the Little Church page, swirled up on the two bottom corners, and also tied it around the August coaster board. And flags, aren’t they so much fun? I even sewed the string to hang the flag on. Even if it is for scrapbooking, I HATE SEWING! But I like how it looks, so I will use this technique occasionally. A little while ago, I just HAD to have some ‘film ribbon’ from Tim Holtz. It is awesome stuff. But I could never find the right place to use it … until the preacher page of Sydney. This ‘ribbon’ forms the ‘leaves’ of the flower in the top left corner. I LOVE IT!!!!! And the last new thing I will point out are the two coloured pins I used on the top corner of Shelby’s preacher page. Kinda cool. Oh, and I can’t help but say something about all of the ribbon I used … a standard product for me. The more I can use on a page, the better!!!

We are heading out for supper soon and then I think I will spend a little more time scrapping and finish the Drumheller trip. You know, the funny thing about that trip is that is was ONLY to Drumheller – a small prairie town in the heart of the Badlands. But it was a lot of fun – that is a town that does dinosaurs well! Happy memories from that trip – I guess that is why I want to work on it!

So remember we were taking Sydney to see Mr. Popper’s Penguins last night? Yah, not. There is only one showing a day, at 12:40 p.m. So we might try another day. We saw Cars 2 instead, in 3D. Cute movie. I got a great pic of Gerry and Sydney wearing their oh-so-cool 3D glasses :-). I will try to remember to post it … ’cause I know how much Gerry loves me posting his picture!!!

This is our second-last day of vacation. It is going by too quickly, but that is what happens. I woke up to a text from Shelby today, who is staying at her friend Sammie’s grandma’s farm (with Sammie), supposedly for a few weeks. Shelby’s text message advised that she is bored and ready to come home. I told her that kids nowadays don’t know how to entertain themselves without all kinds of gadgets … it’s true! Anyway, she said maybe I could come get her this weekend. And I said, maybe not. Next weekend. That sounds like a much better idea to me. And that seemed to pacify her, at least for now!

Okay, better sign off now and go for a bite to eat. Who wants to cook on holidays? Not me. I don’t like to cook when I’m NOT on holidays either :-). I hear there are storm warnings out … so we will be watching the sky carefully. I wouldn’t mind a good summer storm, as long as no one gets hurt.

I’ve been busy! July 6, 2011

Hey, all.

I have been doing a lot of scrappin’ over the last few days – so much fun! Last night, using as inspiration a layout I saw on Scrapbook and Cards Today’s blog (I apologize that I forget who did the layout), I did this one. It’s very different for me – lots of white space. But I really love it. A lot. Plus Shelby is so cute!

I completed another layout today too and will blog it later, maybe even tonight. But now, Gerry and I are off to take Syd to the movie Mr. Popper’s Penguins. She’s been begging for days now, so it’s time!

Happy scrappin’!

I’m back! July 5, 2011

Sorry for the long delay. I have no excuses for why I haven’t been blogging … other than I’m lazy :-). We are on holidays this week – yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! Gerry doesn’t get a lot of vacation time, so he is really glad to have this time, and the weather is definitely cooperating for him to ride his motorcycle. Even though I get plenty of time off, I too am really pleased to have a break from the every day routine of work, etc.

We didn’t do much for Canada Day – just hung around the house in major relax-mode. Saturday, we drove Shelby to Greenwater Lake Provincial Park to camp with a friend, and now she is with said friend at the friend’s grandma’s for a few weeks. The grandma lives on a farm near a small town, so there is really no trouble lurking around. So we get a few worry-free weeks! I am missing Shelby though …

I have been finding lots of time to scrap – on my own, with Sydney (and sometimes one of her friends), and with my friend/co-worker, Barbara. I entered my first LO for publication consideration by Scrapbook and Cards Today. I wasn’t thrilled with how this LO turned out, but I submitted it anyway, knowing full well that it won’t get published. But I figured you have to start somewhere! Even though this isn’t my best work, I really LOVE this picture of Sydney, and also of the two girls.

Over the last couple of days, I launched and finished a special little project. I can’t tell you much right now, but visit in a week or so and I will share openly! Syd and I went SB shopping today and managed to find more treasures at Prairie Chicks in Hague. A great store! They just re-organized, so I HAD to go see it … yes, twist my rubber arm!!! Now I am trying to decide what to scrap tonight. I’ve downloaded a few LO’s created by others and am hoping that they will inspire me. The other night, I was digging through my big bucket of photos (a lifetime’s worth) and got tears in my eyes as I saw all the wonderful photos of my little girls. They aren’t so little anymore, but we took lots and lots of pictures when they were younger (and still do) and I am SO GLAD that we did that. I have such terrific material to work with – so now I need to get at it!

It’s a gorgeous summer evening here, and I will be spending it doing what I love … scrapbooking :-).