tag, you're it!!!

Kim Watson tagged me to share 7 facts about myself so here goes, i'll play (and thanks for the comments about my pics of late, perhaps its just my new Canon XTi thats taking better pics but i am studying and trying to improve and learn).

1. i was terribly shy as a child, hated being up in front of people but working at Wendy's as a teen and being in charge of a crew brought me out of my shell and helped with that
2. i love singing at church and concerts/weddings but don't ask me to speak off the cuff first LOL, my dream is to record and album
3. i was a nail biter till last summer and have now been enjoying having fingernails for over a year, its never to late to break a bad habit
4. i'm married to my highschool sweetheart, we started dating when i was 15
5. i'd love to change my thin fine straight hair and crooked nose
6. i was born and raised in the city but have adjusted quite well to farm life and living in the country
7. i should have a job as a professional shopper LOL, i get a thrill from spotting a bargain whether it be new or at thrift shops or garage sales, it would be an awesome career.

Aloha!!!!!!!

Wow, its been a while since i've updated and we've been across the ocean and back since :) Maui was wonderful, amazingly warm and beautiful with such gorgeous trees and flowers, i'll not soon forget. Anne and Phillip's wedding was just perfect, truly a celebration in paradise at the quaintest little church and Inn. We enjoyed touring the island, walking the beach, snorkelling and swimming in the ocean and pool at our condo. Eating out at restaurants with such fun atmosphere where there were no windows and lots of island breeze blowing through and birds on the floors, lively music and great food of course. We shopped, so many great places to browse and see what goods were for sale and pick up souvenir's to bring home, and a few things for ourselves :) I can hardly wait to go back and take the kids, the snorkelling was amazing and i wish we had had a few more days to explore more places and see more tropical fish and perhaps some turtles and whales.

I can't say that i really enjoyed the flying and the airport waiting but we managed and it was worth the 14 hours in the air and the day spent waiting in airports to catch our flights and go through security etc. I got randomly selected for a pat down in edmonton so i felt "special"but it was nothing serious LOL, just my luck though :). Our condo was good, lots of room, perfect location in Kihei, and a lovely ocean view and bunking with Judi, Ken and Ian was a blast!!! you were great company.

There is nothing like an early morning walk on the beach with the warm breeze and sun coming up and a temperature that for me is as close to heaven as possible!! The smell of the plumaria blossoms is soooo sweet, wish there was a perfume that did it justice. I took hundreds of photos so i'll start by sharing some of the highlites and my faves from the trip and will try and put up a photobucket album for more.

Was great to see the kids, we've not left them for that long before but they managed just fine with their grandparents and i needn't have worried about them.

Tomorrow is back to work for me, back to reality, back to my fleece pants and socks and keeping the wood stove going :) and i'll share a couple photos of the little flock of puppies that greets us when we head out to the shop. they are 6 weeks old and we have 6 out of the 11 left, so stinking cute with unique personalities and i'm sure the ones that have gone to new homes already are being loved to death.

Oh, and that little hobby i have, scrapbooking, well i can hardly wait to get some pics printed from our trip and start scrapping them, i have lots of memorobelia to use like sand and shells and maps, restaurant menus and fun postcards. I already made a couple necklaces with some shell and coral beads i bought in Maui.

so enjoy the snapshots of our trip and the puppies.

Creative skills - sharing?

Ali Edwards ezine is great, love her philosophy on being a "life artist" ,just DO IT, capture the everyday, go with the flow type attitude (not that i can do her style myself but i have tried), and enjoy her challenges. this weeks ezine she challenged us to share our creative skills with others online or personally, to share what we do as scrapbookers that we are good at. Hmmm, i'm not sure quite what to share, i'd say color mixing but with the awesome pp collections and monthly kits i get lately that coordinate, that is the easy part, it feels like cheating sort of LOL. perhaps the way i manage to mix and use so many different patterned papers is my skill? i always want to try and use the most variety to take advantage of the sets and as many pieces as i can on one project and it can be hard but sometimes all you need is a little piece to get that nice mix of all the colors and contrast/design. You can never go wrong with a floral, a stripe and a plaid or polkadot. I guess my quilting for 8 years prior to catching the scrapping bug taught me about putting patterns and colours together but truthfully, i'm going to give credit where its due. I come from generations of talented creative women, my grandma has been quilting and painting and growing a beautiful garden full of color and design for years, and my mom just has the natural ability to design and decorate and quilt and sew..... so i say thanks to them for their instruction and their "genes".

Perhaps you can look at my layouts and tell me what my scrap skill is? i feel like my titles are sometime quirky or corny and obvious but i enjoy composing them and setting them out on a page. I am pretty handy with my sewing machine and paper :) but i don't seem to do it as often as i use to. Anyway, i just thought i'd throw that out for you today, and hope you'll comment and maybe share a link to somewhere you've shared your scrap skill with others.

and here are a couple recent pages for you. thanks to my Aunt Dot who's a great photographer and gave me some great advice this summer, as well as the cool picture of me "reflecting" and mitchell enjoying the beach :) (and mom took the ones in the creek - success!)

Sorry peeps!!

I can't imagine where the last 3 weeks went since my last post!! sorry for slacking off but i guess i've been busy with back to school and back to work and getting my feet wet at my new job. The kids are both playing volleyball (yeah, totally love the sport) so that has occupied a few extra days and evenings.

Fall has officially arrived here, well i think its still fall, we woke up to white one morning which didn't impress me much but it didn't last. did a number on lots of plants and veggies growing in peoples gardens though but its par for the course here.

We're counting down the days till we head across the ocean to Maui and i can hardly wait - 17 days - whoooohooooo. My suitcase is open and slowing being filled, i'm cleaning windows and such in preparation for winter and company, the calendar is filling fast with appointments for a pedicure and a hair cut and volleyball games and tournaments so i know the time will go fast.

Of course i do manage to fit in a bit of scrappy time when i can, loved the bright fun ribbon kit i had to work with from Savvy n Sassy this month, here are some projects i made as well as a few others i created for the new lss opening soon in GP - Scrapbook Matters!

My MOJO...

Well it may be the end of August and summer as we know it since its back to school in just a few, and the weather hasn't been exactly nice, but its been a good week, found my mojo again after weeks without scrapping, got a layout picked up for winter issue by Canadian Scrapbooker which is so cool, AND (THANKS to MICHELLE B.) got asked to be on the premier dt for a new lss opening up in GP mid oct. (the city near us where I shop and do business) so it's been a good week scrapwise and i've even managed to create several pages i'm pleased with, some for the new dt (hmm, not sure i even heard the name of the new store) , some just for fun with summer photos and some cause i simply had/wanted to play with all the new kits and papers i accumulated over the summer. (how does that happen when i don't scrap for weeks and i didn't scrap shop on holidays once!). Anyway, Life Preservers, Mosh Posh, Lisa's Scrap Shack, have provided hours of fun for me this week and here are some of the results.

at last..........

i



had a day to stay home and scrap, yep , i almost forgot how but not quite!!! Here are the projects i created with the SavvyNSassy August sassy ribbon kit which is yummy. I LOVE red, always have, to wear and decorate with, i loved using it with all the different patterned papers.

Its still COLD here, rainy and dreary, i can see a wee bit of sunshine and blue sky but its not enough for me. I suppose we'll drain the pool this weekend (Cryin here big time) as it doesn't sound like it will warm up much and i'm sure the water is way too cold to enjoy. The kids are ready for back to school with new supplies and clothes, even though they are not anxious to really go back to school the preparation is always fun. I found myself some fab new shoes for work/school too so I'm all set!!

We have our tickets booked for Maui, our passports will be in our hands this evening, the condo's are booked and I've got part of my wardrobe already planned to take, it may be close to 2 months away but i know how fast time flies, sooo excited. It feels more official now but till i step foot on the airplane (a big jet which will be a first for me) It won't seem quite real.

SO hope you are enjoying summer and sunshine where you are!!! send some our way pretty pretty please!!!

Sunshine, where are you?

Just a quick post to let you all know we are home from our sunny okanagan holiday, the kids and i had a great time visiting and shopping and lazing on the beach (well mitch worked hard at perfecting his waterskiing skills and that means early mornings on Lake Okanagan) and i miss the heat and mom's good cooking already. It has not been nice since we got home, i sure hope summer isn't over here yet, we did not use the pool enough. This week i'm just getting unpacked and the house cleaned and stuff ready for the local fair that takes quite a bit of our time so its another busy week with no scrap time to speak off, i hope i don't forget how to make a layout when i finally do get back in the groove. will update soon with pics. Oh and love coming home to find goodies in my mailbox and today i got some gorgeous ribbon kits from Savvy N Sassy and i can hardly wait to play with them. Hope August is treating you well.

It figures...

Why is it that when you have all the time in the world and plan to do something creative, you have no mojo, no juices flowing, and then when you're out of time you have all the inspiration in the world. Yep, just not fair. But I was productive a bit yesterday and today so here are those layouts and ya know when something just clicks and you're giddy with excitement when its done? thats how i feel about 10 years later!! i just loved the photos (Sears portrait) and the color combo, fun with scalloped edges and a lil bling for fun. Here's hoping someone else likes it enough to publish it!!!

Happy to have taken Second place in the challenge contest at Life Preservers and can't wait to see the prize Shellye sends.

The kids and i are packing our suitcases and sleeping bags and heading to Bible camp sunday for the week so I'm praying for strength and patience and no cuts in the kitchen!! I'm sure it will be lots of fun, it usually is. Have a good week.

Ribbon Ribbon glorious Ribbon

I've been having lots of fun creating with the great Savvy N Sassy ribbon kit i got for my dt assignment for July. It coordinates with the Zany Zinnia Tropical Breeze Kit and you can get the Ribbon Kit here. Lovely collection of flower trim, chocolate ric rac, laces and ribbons, yum. Here are the projects as well as one i did last week with a photo of my Great Grandma (and the black ribbon from SNS which went so well with the paper line i used) that i found and enlarged. Remembering.

Its HOT HOT HOT and i LOVE LOVE LOVE it, swimming and sunning and relaxing. Life is good, hay is ready to be cut so hope we can get that done before the weather changes (or maybe it won't and we'll have another gorgeous summer which would suite me just fine).

YEAH, my books arrived, Understanding Exposure, Digital SLR's for Dummies and the Unofficial Guide to PHotoshop CS2 so guess what i have to read and study over the summer, LOTS of info to absorb and take in, but i know i will reap the benefits of understanding these two important (and most expensive) tools of the trade. And improving my photography is a goal i can work towards. Did i mention i LOVE my new camera? Apparently the 50mm 1.4 lens is da bomb so better start saving my pennies for it, its a pricey one.

Bzzzzzzzzzzz

I love summertime but NOT so much the bees that are always around and it seems there are lots this year. Poor Mitchell got stung (or bit) on the forehead the other day while out with his dad on the quads and his face is just getting back to normal, it swelled quite a bit, so perhaps we'll have to be prepared for a reaction next time around. My peony finally bloomed after 3 years, of transplanting from Grandmas gorgeous garden so that makes me happy, i hope the other one will next year.

Just a few layouts to share that i did this past week, got my first DT kit from Savvy N Sassy so will have lots of fun with the ribbons they put together I'm sure. And i am now the owner of an ATG tape gun, the grandaddy of taperunners LOL. Thanks Rhea for doing the legwork and bringing those in, I'm sure we'll all appreciate the seemingly endless feet of STICKY adhesive and not having to worry about running out, not to mention the economy of it. I've added a link on the side to the new Savvy N Sassy BLOG so be sure to check it out for contests and news and inspiration.

And if you haven't purchased the summer issue of Canadian Scrapbooker you should, its fab, and not just cause i've got two layouts in there LOL. I love that we have an all Canadian Magazine and it can be found at the grocery stores and Zellers i see now so easy to find. Enjoy.

Its suppose to be nice and hot the next few days so I'll be - yep, you guessed it, lounging outside by the pool reading a book!! with some scrapping thrown in there of course.