Ringing in 2011

Another year has come and gone and 2011 is just around the corner.

A lot happened in 2010 and you must take the good with the bad. So we are putting the bad behind us and going to take 2011 by storm.

Many things happened in 2010 however I don't think we would trade 99% of them, they are what made us stronger.  Those we lost this year will be greatly missed and always in our hearts, know that we think of you daily and smile.

I love a new year. It marks a time to make changes, fresh starts and new aspirations. 

Resolutions are hard so I try never to make them - most of the time I call them something else so there isn't the pressure of them. I know still the same thing but I have to play tricks with my mind!  I have made goals for myself in many aspects of my life for the coming year and truly hope I can stick to them this year. 

Let's put 2010 away in our hearts and start anew with 2011. 

My family wishes each and everyone of you a very Happy New Year and all that it holds.

Almost the end of 2010

I can't say I'm sad to see 2010 coming to a close! It's been a topsy turvy year for us. I'm ready for 2011 and all that it holds but first we still have 10 days to go.

I have been working on some projects that are gifts for some wonderful people and they will find them under their tree on Christmas morning.

This is a name frame (thanks to my friend Jess for the idea) that I did for my friend Jill's great niece, McKendra. She is such a sweet girl and some how she crawled into our hearts. Marcus and Terry shine when they see her and I just want to pick her up and run her to our house to stay whenever we are together. I used a IKEA frame and my Tinkerbell cricut cartridge and a lot of stickles to create it. I love how it turned out and I cannot wait to do some more. Come on family and friends have more babies I want to do more names! LOL!

I have a few more projects done but cannot share until after Christmas when everyone opens their gifts.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Holiday Season and all the best in 2011.

Life goes on

1. Hail damage to our house, car, van and tent trailer - golf sized hail stones can do a lot of damage
2. Water in the basement - not covered by insurance 
3. Concrete company comes to repair basement - HUGE BILL
4. Basement renos halted 
5. A friend in need moves in with her belongings, cat and turtle
6. Gas man comes to check bbq line as it appears loose - yup that and other pipes loose and leaking gas - nice gas man fixes all and makes us safe. :)
7. Tent trailer taken to get the axle fixed - repair guy oh easy fix we have the part. No they don't and probably won't have it done until just before our mini-vacation (if we get to go at all)
8. Terry's fingers get slammed into a door - fingers black and blue and will lose 2 nails
9. Washing machine and deep freeze act up

That's a list of things that have happened in just the last month and a half. I'm sure there's a few more but that's the major things so far this summer. There is just over 3 weeks until Terry is back at work and a month until Marcus starts Grade 4. Where has the time gone - oh yeah see above list. 


I sit back and think WOW how much more can I take and I then realize we are still very lucky to have everything we have in our lives and have a very healthy family. There is a friend in my life that is truly amazing.  I don't know how she does it, she has a 4 children and one that is critically ill and she is handling more stress than anyone should ever endear in a life time but yet somehow she still goes on. Sarah you are an inspiration to me and I am blessed to know you. Caroline, Adam, Oliver and Cooper have a mom that is a true hero.  Please check out Sarah's story and keep them in your prayers and thoughts


http://cotaforcooperk.com/blog


I haven't been overly crafty in the past 2 months but tonight I did a card so I could try out my new Cuttlebug since I'm finding using my old Sizzix difficult and painful on my wrists and hands.


Here's the card

And this is my new scrapping buddy - I'm not a cat person but Arlo is changing that since he moved in and taken to sitting on top of my scrapbox overseeing what I do and purring the whole time. (I actually think he just wants to watch Nitro the Turtle walk in circles in his cage while I scrap.)

Until next time, be sure to hug those you love and keep them close.

Floor needed!

It's getting closer and closer to being finished and I'm getting really excited. The walls are up and painted, the ceiling is done except for the vent tiles, the lights are up. They are nice and bright above my space.

So do you wanna see MY SPACE. The place where I'm going to create my woman cave! I do have to share some of the room but my corner area is going be my lil piece of heaven.

Here's my wonderful husband working really hard to finish this (really just so I stop nagging him)

This area is where my big screen tv is going along with my bar fridge, microwave and popcorn stand (shhhh don't tell Terry he doesn't know yet)

This corner is going to be my creative space!

The right of this picture is going to be a big comfy sectional couch when I find one that meets both my and hubby's requirements. Apparently he doesn't like the price of the ones I have picked out in the past. 

So next we do the floor, the doors and the molding and then I get to shop for new furniture. IKEA here I come. 

Thanks for looking and sharing in my excitement of my new oasis. 

Stay tuned for more soon

Life changes

You never know when life is going to throw a curve ball at you.  That's what happened to me on Thursday March 11, 2010. After just over 22 years with the same company I find myself unemployed.

It's a sad situation as I'm not the only one it affected. Other co-workers are gone as well, co-workers that are dear to my heart are shocked and saddened. The amazing person I employ to look after my son when I'm not able and my family wonders what will happen in the future.

However I believe in the power of the mind and heart and all things happen for reasons. Those reasons right now are unclear. There have been moments where I'm sitting on the couch with tears falling down my checks to moments I'm upbeat and thinking maybe this is the most amazing thing that has ever happened. I'm sure I will have more of each of the moments in the future.

I started this post days and days ago and just couldn't go back to it. Since I started it I have gone through many many emotions some good and some not. I've met with a career counsellor that the company I worked for hired for me. After 22 years resumes and interviewing are so different then when I first entered the working force. However I needed something else.

Last weekend I went away with 7 amazing woman. I believe not one of us is alike (well maybe Eryn and I) though each and everyone of us have common factors. One being scrapbooking. So Friday March 26, 2010 I packed up my scrap stuff and drove to get my SIL, Joelene and off we headed to Pigeon Lake, stopping in Red Deer to meet up with Eryn and Heather for lunch at East Side Mario's - well that started the theme for the weekend. Lots of laughs! The waiter that frightened Joelene a little with his trying hard to be Bada boom bada ching! The same waiter calling me a Cougar yes I'm a mature person but not a cougar or is it because I live in Cougar Ridge near Cougar Town Circle? I dunno but man did we laugh.  Next shopping for Joelene & I - great deals on something things and then off to the retreat. Did you know that there are 50 zillion log homes in Pigeon lake - seriously. Well we found our home for the weekend and unpacked. Amazing place!

This is just one view of the house and boy did we make a mess or at least some of us - Joelene had a tendancy to clean up her table after every project which in turn made us crumple paper on her table when she was the first to go to bed one night. 

There were many laughs of Heather can you pick that up off the floor for us, some you are old jokes flying around, to some serious conversations of life and of course Bailey's in our morning coffee though I also had it with every cup I had even in the evening!

With these women I feel that I can share any thought I have and I will not be judged, I might be made fun of but that's ok because it's all done with love. These women are a huge HUG for me and I believe that this was one of the best weekends I have had in a very long time and was just the medicine I needed. I, THANK YOU ladies for coming into my life.

Here are some of the LO's I completed. I'm happy with them and I think this is most I've ever gotten done at a retreat in a very long time - I did 15 LO's.

Marcus writes a Fairy Tale

Marcus' grade 3 class has been learning about Fairy Tales and how to write them and what they are all about including how to waltz. He wrote this fairy tale at school - they had to take a bunch of fairy tales and and use certain aspects of them such as a gingerbread house, stepmother etc. and switch them into a story of their own. 

Have a look

Once upon a time there was a princess named Wendy who lived in a nice little town. Wendy had very curly hair, her skin was the shade of a whiteboard, and her shoes were diamond blue. Wendy had a very mean and ugly stepmother who wore a read cape. The stepmother lived in a gingerbread castle. The castle had gumdrops for the windows and chocolate for the doors. One day, Wendy wandered into a spook forest. Wendy got very scared and tried finding a way out but she was lost. While she was trying to get out of the spooky forest she saw a delicious looking gingerbread house. It was very similar to the gingerbread castle so Wendy went inside. She saw seven little gingerbread men eating their lunch with a cup of gumdrop juice.

Back at the castle the stepmother looked into her magic cookie mirror. She said, "Magic Mirror on the floor who is the fairest one of them all?"
"Well, Wendy of course" the magic mirror replied.

The stepmother was furious when she heard that so she cast a spell on Wendy that made her fall asleep for three weeks. The seven little gingerbread men made her a bed out of marshmallows and gumdrops. After three weeks, she woke up and was as hideous as an earthworm! To break the spell she needed a prince to come and kiss her.

One day a prince came to kiss Wendy. The stepmother saw the prince and tried to curse him but it did not work because it bounced off a tree and flew back to the stepmother. She turned into a chicken and was served for the prince and Wendy's royal wedding feast that night.

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I love it and can't wait to scrapbook it into a Fairy Tale page (it might even look really girlie) ;)

More basement renovations - update

Here is Terry taping and mudding the walls of the basement and then sanding. We have actually gotten a little farther than this (we have primer on the walls now) but I only have these photos to share at the moment. It takes some time when you both work full-time, then be a full-time parent and spouse, helping out ailing parents as well as I decided to take a class so I'm now busy studying on top of trying to do everything else.

Anyways here's some of the basement

I think after this weekend the blue paint will be going on the walls and then we are doing the ceiling and if we can agree on the colour floor then that will be last. I can't wait to have the basement back as that means my scrap area will be back too! :)

Scrapbooking is it medicine for a headache?

Today after a long day at the office I came home with a massive headache, one that has been brewing for 3 days. I had a hot bath, Terry drugged me up with some Advil and I slept on and off for 2 hours. The headache subsided a little and then my sisterinlaw, Joelene suggested that maybe doing a scrap page would help. It was worth a try. And what better than to scrap the person that suggested it. Thanks Joelene it helped a little and I love the fact I got another LO done.

Here we are at Christmas 2009 having a great time together.

Marcus' first digital scrapbook page

Tonight after dinner Marcus sat with me while I tried to do a digital page of him and his cousin Breana. It's one of my favourite pictures of them. Marcus adores Breana and loves to play the role of the BIG COUSIN.

Little did I know that my son is an expert on this program and decided to tell me how to do a page. Kids really do learn by watching don't they.

We both decided to do a page each with the same pictures.

Here's Marcus' first digital scrapbook page.

I think he did an awesome job since it was his first and I only had to help him find the elements to put on - he picked out the colours and placement - in fact he took the computer right out of my hands to do it. Not bad for an 8 year old

And here's mine

Thanks for looking

Last Sunday night we put Marcus to bed, about an hour later I hear Terry laughing and whispering to me to come up the stairs. What now I think to myself but I get up and go upstairs and see Terry peering into Marcus' room. When I looked in I started to giggle. Lately he has been sliding out of his bed and not waking up so he has been sleeping on the floor.  I can't wait to scrap these pics.

Take a look at what we found

Mommy does have a real friend.

Today there was no scrapping. Not that I didn't want to I just can't seem to move myself from the couch and watching Biggest Loser.

Tonight I was to meet with a great bunch of ladies that I met through either an online group or through my sister-in-law Joelene, we have a lot in common. Unfortunately several of them couldn't make it - some not feeling well and some wearing down. Feel better my friends I miss you.

Despite the change in plans I decided to meet up with Eryn from the group anyways, as I needed to give her a book and I decided to bring my son Marcus with me since Daddy had a change in plans too. Well Marcus was excited. He had not met Eryn yet though I've known her several years. Sometimes I don't think he thought that she was real. See I was hiding some of my friends. They are my friends and I didn't want to share them with anyone! Maybe I was being a little greedy and selfish about this but they are a group of women that accept you for who you are faults and all and I love them for that.

So we met up with Eryn, had a great dinner together and some laughs. Marcus was in fine form, his usual goofy self. I can't wait to have him meet up with Eryn's sons Dawson and Brayden. Afterward we got in the car and were on the way home, Marcus said he was excited to play with the boys but the funniest thing was "Mommy Eryn is real, she isn't just in your computer"

LOL!

I did it

I'm very proud of myself - I'm not overly computer literate when it comes to new things. Show me several times, leave me written instructions along with pictures (yes I need pictures at times) and let me practice and I can then do it.

Look what I did. I have been wanting to learn this for awhile and now that I have my awesome PSE 8 I can and I cannot wait to do photos of flowers and my son with his blue eyes. I love how it changes a photo. Now take in mind it's not the greatest photo to do but it was one that had a great colour it in so that's why I used it - that an it's my boys in their pj's and they hate it when I show these pictures to others! ;)

Way Behind but gaining speed

I've been paper crafting for about 11 years. I love it. Ok your right I don't just love it I'm addicted. The past several years I've been scrapbooking for others, doing albums as gifts for them etc. 2010 is the year that I scrapbook for me.  Marcus is now 8 years old and I've only completed the first year of his life. So now I'm working on 2003 for him and me. 2003 because that's the disks I found first.

Here's the start of Marcus 2003.