There's no place like home

After spending the last week in Edmonton at my in-laws I am sooooo glad to be back in my own house! Christmas was nice, Mercedes got spoiled like usual. But the very best part for me was getting to spend some time with Jessilyn. Last night we went out to supper at Applebee's and then we went and wandered the mall for an hour or so. Mercedes was just mesmerized with Jessi and it did my heart alot of good to see my two girls together. Jessi was so sweet and bought these bracelets that said sisters...she gave one to Mercedes and she wore the other one. I just enjoyed seeing them interact to together and those 3 hours together just flew by. All and all it was a fun and very busy week...always so many people to visit & I'm looking forward to doing nothing except sleeping and scrapbooking over the next couple days. And I'll probably spend alot of time staring at the pics of my beautiful daughters. :

The Calendar & some cards

Card set & little silk bag my mom made for me to use as packaging.


After many hours of hard work I am finally finished the calendar that I made my mom for Christmas. It has everyone's birthday's marked and the layouts all contain pictures of her grandchildren & family. It's been one of those projects that I flowed fairly easily and turned out better than I had expected. :)

Front cover


January Layout


February Layout


March Layout


April Layout


May Layout


June Layout


July Layout


August Layout


September Layout


October Layout


November Layout


December Layout & Calendar page

Busy week...

This has been just a crazy busy week. Today is the first day that I don't an appointment of some kind. Which is a good thing cause I have to finish up a couple gifts, wrap everything and start packing to leave Saturday morning. Tomorrow afternoon Brad and I are going into Lethbridge to finish up our shopping for Mercedes and then we're hoping to get the car all loaded tomorrow night so we can just get up and leave in the morning. MIL is having Christmas dinner at 6pm that night, so we can't be late. I'm still waiting to hear back from Jessi, but I am really, really hoping that I get to see her.

As for now I'm about to finish my mom's calendar and then straight to the wrapping. I'll try to post some pics later. :)

cards, cards, cards

Today I sold 53 cards, which meant I spend the last few hours making 16 Christmas cards for my mom! I also made 13 girl bday cards for some 14 & 15 year olds. And then my sister bought 10 to give to one of her friends for Christmas. Luckily I had about 60 cards on hand, but I was planning on using some of those as gifts myself! lol

We just found out today that my grandma is coming to see us tomorrow. I'm so excited cause I haven't seen her for about a year and she is the best grandma ever! I made up a set of 15 cards for her and then my mom made me this cute little silky bag to put them in, so I had to get that all ready tonight too.

I didn't get anything done on my calendar today, but at least I've made it too December. I really need to get my butt in gear since we are supposed to be leaving first thing Saturday morning to go to Edmonton. I at least have most of the shopping done, but there's still wrapping, laundry, packing, etc., etc. and with Brad not living here I have alot less help then usual. Plus there was something up with him tonight....not sure what it was yet, but I will be keeping my senses on high alert.

I'll upload so pics tomorrow of all my cards & such. :)

talk about a long day...

I was up at 7 this morning and off to Lethbridge to apply for Income Support. To make a long story short, I got my number before 9pm and finally talked to someone at 11:30am. Then she told me that I would have to come back again on Thursday, and I proceeded to have a small breakdown right there at her desk. Totally mortified on my part. After pulling my file she got her supervisor and they were able to help me today, but I didn't get out of that building until 4pm. But at least I have some money now to buy groceries and pay the power bill.

Mercedes stayed at Sonda's tonight again, cause I was just a mess after Lethbridge so I knew I needed some time alone. I see Chris tomorrow and we'll see what kind of wisdom he may shine on the situation. After that I need to finish my Christmas shopping. I'm starting to really look forward to this holiday season being over.

All for now.
T

I'm Back.....

Decided tonight that keeping up my blog is my new priority. Some days may be nothing more than 5 things I'm thankful for, or just some pictures of things I've been working on or have interested me. Some days will have long entries as I use this forum as a way to try to work out all the many things constantly racing around my brain. Other days may have only one or two words describing how I'm feeling...on those days one or two words is all that my brain can handle. Some times I will have good things to write about, and some times I will have to write about some not so good things. This is life though and I think it needs to be recorded, if for no other reason than to help me figure myself out and encourage me to continue to look at the big picture and strive to keep doing better. From the mundane such as tracking med changes to the excitement of a completing a special project. My goal is to make at least one entry a day...no matter how small or how large.

So first things first...here's a picture of me taken after all my dental work & summer makeover.

Lately I've been swamped getting Christmas gifts made, card orders to fill, keeping up with Mercedes, and my volunteer work at the school helping the grade ones scrapbook. After I finish my Christmas gifts, the next big project is an album for my grandma. I'm getting excited to start working on it.

On the personal front Brad and I are seperated again, but things have been amicable, so hopefully we can keep things that way. Mercedes is with me and she is doing great in school. Only 1 more week before her Christmas holidays. That's all for now...see ya tomorrow. :)

So it's been awhile...

This summer has turned out to be quite a difficult one for me. I managed to quit smoking for only 13 days and then I started again. I had 10 teeth pulled and they all got dry sockets, and then I got an infection requiring IV antibiotics. It was right around then that I started smoking again...I was just in so much pain that I couldn't deal with the cravings on top of everything. It's now been just a little over a month since I had all the teeth pulled and I am still on a fairly restrictive diet since I can chew much or eat anything that requires I bite it off with my front teeth...I had discovered that it is possible to eat a sandwich with a knife & fork! lol

There has been some really good news for me this summer, but it has also been a bit of a double edged sword. After 6 years of no direct contact my older daughter & I are now in contact on Facebook. You can only imagine my joy at being able to look at 100's of pics of her. Usually I only get to see the stilted, half-posed pics that my mom takes when she sees them at Christmas. My son still won't have any contact with me, but I'm hoping that will change at some point. And now my dd and I are sending each other messages every day or two. She is such an amazing girl and I am so glad that we are in contact, but it has opened a pandora's box of emotions that I have spent years trying NOT to open. Getting to know her and talking to her makes it that much harder that I'm not in her daily life. Along with the intense sadness, I also have so much guilt and anger to deal with. So needless to say this has not only made me very happy, but also very depressed. And I had kinda forgotten how bad depression feels because I had had a great 6 months before this. But now here I am back to crying everyday, sleeping for at least 12 hours at a time, not scrapbooking and barely eating.

Luckily I have lots of family that help out with Mercedes and hopefully this hasn't really affected her summer. She spent 2 weeks in Edmonton with her grandparents, and right now she is in BC with my sister's family camping. I'm just getting a little stressed about being able to get her up & to school on time at 8:30 when I normally can't drag my butt outta bed until 11! On the plus side I have lost about 15 lbs in the last 6 weeks.

Setting some goals...

Here are a couple pics of the altered board book I made. I'm very glad that it is done! lol I don't think I'll be volunteering to do that again anytime soon! lol

Now I'm trying to finish the LO I'm making using my last post as journaling. Hopefully I'll have it finished today. So here's the big news...I've decided that the time has come to quit smoking. My quit date is June 24/07. I am telling as many people as I can...the more people that know the less chance I have of not succeeding. And I will be getting a whole new look this summer.

Shoes...

This was the scene inside my mom's front door today. Shoes, shoes & more shoes. Dan & Shi were there with their 7 kids, and Sonda & Randy were there with their 6 kids, and then Mercedes & I were there...alot of people, alot of noise, alot of shoes!

I first noticed the shoes as I was running out the door to get something from my house. I noticed them enough that this was the first picture I took when I got back to my mom's house. As I was taking the picture I thought how this pile of shoes was so indicative of our family right now. A little jumbled up, a little messy, a little all over, but alot all together!

Wasn't it just the other day that the front entry was filled with car seats & diaper bags? When did all these kids go from toddlers to teenagers? When did we stop changing diapers & start helping with hair & makeup? How is it that my nieces are more interested in the cute boys rather than the playground? Instead of checking on the kids playing outside we are checking out the boys that have come to pick up these girls...these girls that were babies just yesterday.

We have no more babies now. No diapers, no bottles, no sleepers. Our youngest kids will be starting kindergarten within the next year or two & the oldest will be graduating high school in a year or two. I'm amazed at how fast the time has gone and I stop for a moment to just look around and try to remember exactly how we look right now. This is our family. These are our shoes.

A good day...

I got an email today from Canadian Scrapbooker magazine requesting a LO for the Fall issue! Woohoo!! I had made the layout for Sonda...it's pictures from Sawyer's first day of School...so I had to go borrow it to send off for photographs. She didn't want to give it to me, since the first time I was published the magazine lost the layout...I'm still dealing with that one! I finally convinced Sonda that the LO will be safe...worst case scenerio I can make her another one! I also finally finished the altered board book I've been working on. I am so glad to have that off my desk!! I need to do something for myself now...I have a few pictures printed, but nothing that is really screaming "scrap me"...and my ink is just about out so I'm trying to be really stingy...so I'll either have to work with the pics I have or try to get a challenge accomplished from http://www.scrapcentral.ca.

Today Mercedes made me just laugh (again)...she was over at my mom's house and I called her to tell her I was running to the grocery store. She asked me to get her a surprise. I said "no". She said "please". I said, sarcastically, "ok, I'll get you some broccoli"...she said "YAY!!! Thanks Mom!" I don't know of many kids that get excited about broccoli!! lol Then later she had a friend over to play and she asked me if she could have some broccoli...I said yes. So in a very excited voice she asked her friend "hey, Jewell...want some broccoli?" Jewell looked at Mercedes like she had lost her mind and shook her head vehemently. Mercedes just shrugged her shoulders and said "ok, but I'm having some!!" And she then proceeded to have 2 big helpings of steamed broccoli. I just had to laugh though cause I have never seen a child so excited by a vegetable! lol

May long weekend...

Well here we are...middle of May already...boy, does time fly! I haven't been doing much lately as I've been struggling with one health issue after another! The latest thing is an abcessed tooth that made the whole right side of my face swell. I went to the dr. and got some antibiotics and I have an appointment with the dentist on Wednesday. I'm trying to decide if the time has come to just have all my teeth pulled. Logically, I don't think it's that hard of a decision, but the idea of not having any of my own teeth before I turn 40 is just freaking me out!! Plus this is a major decision...can't change my mind after it's done...guess I'll wait and see what the dentist recommends.

I haven't been able to do much scrappin lately, although I did make a couple cards for Dan & Burns 40th birthday and I've been working on an altered board book for a girl that is getting married next week. I'm really looking forward to finishing it so that I can maybe work on something for myself soon!! Seems like everything I've done lately is for other people, so I'm anxious to get a couple Lo's done for my own scrapbook. Here's hoping I get the book finished today. I'll post pics as soon as it's done. :)

It's only been a week...

and I'm back updating already!!

Last weekend was a blast! We had our monthly pj party crop at http://www.scrapcentral.ca I had a great time helping with games & challenges, and I even managed to complete a couple myself. :)

I finally finished my paper bag album & yesterday I took it over to Shaina for her birthday. She started to look through it and asked me if I had made it especially for her...I told her to read it and see. On the second page I had used a quote from Spencer W. Kimball so as soon as she saw that she knew I had made it just for her! And she loved it...as I had hoped she would! I knew that she would appreciate the time I put into it, and it was fun to have a total surprise for her! She's become a very important person in my life so any chance I get to show my gratitude, I try to take. I can really talk to her and not worry that she's judging me...even yesterday we had a quick visit and I was able to talk to her about some of the things that have been going on here at home...stuff I can't talk about with my mom or sister. Plus I just love knowing that Mercedes is in such a safe, loving enviroment when she spends time there. We are really lucky to have lots of family that lives with high standards & I know are great enviroments for my daughter.

It's been awhile...

I know, I know...I have been very bad at keeping up this blog. Once again, I will say that I really plan to try harder!

Well, it seems that spring is finally here! My front yard is a bloom with tulips and Brad spent the last weekend mowing, trimming, and cleaning the yard...it even looked better than my mom's (for a day or two) lol

Mercedes is as busy as usual...kindergarten, dance, playing with cousins. She's recently gotten into http://www.webkinz.com so she has lots of fun playing with her pets.

Brad is working at Temple City Housing...mostly he paints, but he's been putting up drywall the last couple weeks. Things haven't been exactly idyllic the last few weeks, but I think we are working on that.

I've had a bunch of back problems over the last six weeks. My current diagnosis is sciatica spondilolistesis...don't ask me what that means, other than I have a constant shooting pain down my left leg. I started physio therapy today so hopefully it will be feeling better soon.

I'm still busy scrapbooking and being creative. I spend most of my online time at http://www.scrapcentral.ca . I just started a three month term with the design team and I'm super excited about it!! I've been a member of ScrapCentral for 3 months now and I've accomplished more so far this year than I did ALL of last year!! The monthly crops are just a blast and there are constant challenges, games & contests with lots of opportunities to win prizes...and best of all LOTS of inspiration to get the creative juices flowing.

They also offer monthly kits at ScrapCentral, and I've gotten both the April and the May kits and I love them!! I had never bought a kit before but it was so convenient to get a package with matching paper, stamps, embellishments...especially since I don't get to a scrapbook store very often anymore. I'm currently working on a little paper bag album using the papers from the May kit and I'm hoping to have it finished tonight or tomorrow. I've decided that I'm going to give it to my cousin for her birthday on May 5th (National Scrapbook Day...and Brad and My 6th anniversary).

I will be sure to post it here as soon as it's finished. For now here's a few things I've made using the kits from ScrapCentral. :)

Been awhile...

I haven't written much lately but I've been busy doing lots of scrapping. I sold 25 cards this month already, and I've been doing lots of challenges at ScrapCentral...loving that site! Got a few family birthdays coming up soon so the gift making has begun.

Last night I started a canvas for Sonda for her birthday, and needless to say I just finished it tonight around 7 pm...and I didn't go to bed! I worked on it all night long. PLus I did a LO last night also. I've uploaded a few of my latest projects. :)

And I'll try not to wait so long to post again. :)

Well it's been a while....

Figured it was time to make an entry here even though not much has been happening. Brad started his new job on Tuesday, and Mercedes had the whole week off from school so we got lots of mommy & Mercedes time! She is such a busy little girl, constantly wanting to be doing something...crafts, cooking, helping, just so busy, busy, and it sure makes me appreciate having Grandma next door. My mom laughs and said I was the exact same way so it's just payback! lol

I've been doing alot of scrappin/creative stuff lately. In fact today I realized that everytime I found my mind wandering it was thinking about scrapbooking. I did manage to make it into Lethbridge today and happily spent some $ at the lss. I got a really good deal on a set of stamps and I got some great paper.

I've been making lots of cards lately as I'm getting ready to start taking my portfolio around town to some of the gift shops. I have one store already that is just waiting for me to bring it in. I just want to make sure that I have a nice variety when I go in there.

I'm trying to work on a LO tonight, but I'm still in the trying to pick paper phase, although I have the pics printed and the journaling done. Now it all needs to stew in my head for a little while and hopefuly something wonderful will come out! lol

The LO at the top of this post is one I did last weekend that was a totally different style for me, but I challenged myself to give it a try and I am really happy with the results. I hand journaled, I doodled, I freestyled, I mixed and matched and just had alot of fun. Reminded me that I need to continually challenge myself or I begin to stagnate. Well, off to stew on this new LO....can I finish it before morning?lol

Some good news...

Brad got a new job today!!! Yay!!!! He has been laid off since just before Christmas and we were just starting to get a little desperate and then today he got two job offers within 20 minutes of each other. He took the job that has benefits and he will actually be making better money than he was at his last job. He doesn't have to start until Tuesday, so we have a few days to get back into the groove of him not being around to help with the house.

Aside from that I had a pretty good day also. Got some really good deals on some clothes for Mercedes and bought a couple things for gifts also. I've been trying to work on something creative tonight but have so far only made one card although I did make one with Mercedes earlier and she was trying to help with mine so I finally just set it aside until after she was asleep.

Not sure what I'm going to work on next, but I'm wide awake so I'll probably take advantage of the situation, although I think my stunted creativity is due to the fact that I haven't bought any new supplies lately. I'll be so glad when we get Brad's paycheque and I can buy a few new things to rev up the creative juices.

Reorganization is alot of work....

Well after staying up all night on Saturday, I finally managed to completely clean up and reorganize my scrappin area. So I thought it would be fun to show a few of the before and after pics. These first three pictures are obviously the before pics. The top picture is my desk. The tall bookcase is to the right of my desk. And the shorter shelves are to the left of my desk (when sitting at my desk).


Now after spending 12 straight hours re organizing, re labeling and all the other stuff ... I'm very happy with my scrap area. Mercedes has her own little desk on my left and she has a couple of her own shelves, filled with her own supplies.

After Pics....

But when it is finally finished it is just so worth it!!!

The top picture is taken looking straight onto my scrappin area. I have two big picture windows behind my desk, and the white door that you see on the left edge of the photo is our front door.

The second picture is taken from the corner of the room just to give you an idea of where my desk and stuff is in relation to the rest of the room.

The third picture is the shelves that are to the right of my desk. The bottom shelves on the left side have all my mags, idea books and books & images for altered books. The bottom shelves on the right side are Mercedes shelves. On the right side of the shelves there are in/out trays for projects on the go and above that is a little corkboard with pics and whatever may be inspiring to me that week. :)

Fourth pic is the bookcase to the left of my desk. Along with my sterlite container that has my stamps, inks, and paints. Behind that container is another corkboard that has various things on it at different times...I use it especially to keep things in sight that I always seem to forget I have! lol

And the last pic is just a pic of my favorite supply...paint!!

Scrap Central weekend

 

This is the layout I did this last weekend. I joined the site www.scrapcentral.ca this weekend and had a great time enjoying the launch of this new website. I know the owner and I knew right away that I would want to be a part of the site from the beginning. I love the fact that I can host my images right there and doing submissions will be so easy now.

I really haven't been up to much lately. My anxiety is starting to calm down a little bit since last week, which I'm very grateful for. I'm still struggling with sleep issues but hopefully that will work itself out soon. I hope to get more scrappin done in the next few days also...I always feel so much better when I've been creative.

Not much happening this week...I have a hearing test on Wednesday and then I see my dr. on Thursday, but that's all that I have planned so far. Hopefully Brad will be going back to work soon. Well, I obviously don't have much to say tonight, so I'll just sign off and head to bed. :)