Let's just pretend that I DID blog all month long...

Bad, bad blogger

I can't believe that it's been almost a month since I last did an entry. I don't even have a good excuse, but I will try to be better from now on. For now I'll just post some of the LO's and cards that I have done this month. :)

Not to busy lately...

I have been busy the last couple days, doing some repairs due to some adhesive problems I was having, and I spent some time yesterday getting my card sketches and idea book that I keep updated with some of the new cards I had made. I also started a binder for Layout sketches and any other helpful tips, etc.

I think I mentioned the Jessica Sprague class I took, "Stories In Hand" and I'm really glad that I chose to work on this. Usually I just look through the book first until something catches my eye and then I write out the story in a word document and save it. Some are being written directly to my children, and they each get different answers to the same questions sometimes, so I'm going to be kept busy by this for quite some time!

It has already proven useful though. One of the first questions I answered was about being read to as a child. Not 3 days later I came across this picture of my dad reading a bedtime story to all 3 of us kids. The entire journaling is taken from the "essay" I wrote in response to the Stories in Hand prompt. I really hope my mom does hers too as I think it would be awesome to know more about her.

So here is the LO I did using the Basic Grey Boxer collection. The picture was taken in 77/78 and I'm the one in red.

And this was a card I did to fulfill some of my design team responsibilites.

A couple more resolutions and a few more cards

ScrapCentral has started a challenge a day and yesterday's challenge was to make 5 cards for 5 different occasions. I took it as an opportunity to keep building up my card inventory. And I had some fun, playing with new supplies.

The other resolutions that I have made this year is to try to live a healthier life. And I also took a class from jessicasprague just before Christmas called Stories in Hand. I made a small album filled with memory prompts to help you write your own stories. My goal this year is to do at least one per week, but I'm hoping to do even more. I've already done two and I'm so far really enjoying the process. I know that alot of them will end up on a scrapbook page and that really excites me. I try to include as much journaling as possible on my layouts and am looking forward to using my creative skills to make my stories more than just pages and pages of typed answers. I also made my mom one, so we have been encouraging each other and I think that will help too. The reason this is so important to me is because I have 3 kids, and 2 of them really don't know anything about me or about themselves when they were little, and since I'm planning to make them albums this year anyways, I think this will just add a whole new level to a basic scrapbook.

Happy New Year

I know it's been awhile since I've written, but I was taking a little time off to enjoy the holiday season. Hope everyone had a great holiday filled with family and friends and free time! I must admit though that I was ready for Mercedes to go back to school and Brad to go back to work, so I can have the house to myself for a few hours again! I find it so hard to create when they are around because it always feels like I get interupted just as I'm getting going, which is one of the reasons that I do most of my creating after they are both in bed! lol

We had a good, but hectic, Christmas up in Edmonton, spending time with Brad's family. His dad had a really bad fall and has been in hospital for about a month now, so we tried to spend as much time with him as we could. We also got in a couple visits with friends, and Mercedes and I took Jessilyn & her boyfriend out to dinner one night and it was soooooo good to see her again. I was a little freaked out about meeting my daughter's boyfriend, but I was very impressed with him and was glad that he was able to come along. Jessi totally made Mercedes day by telling her that next time we are up, Jessi will spend a day with Mercedes doing whatever she wants to do. You can only imagine the joy in my heart upon hearing this. I so enjoy seeing my 2 girls together and look forward to them spending more time together. Because we were so busy up there, I was a little stressed out and suffered severe withdrawal from my scrappin supplies! lol Next year I am definately taking a little scrappin survival kit up there! It just drove home the fact that I do use my creative time as a stress reliever and was very glad to get home and get back into the groove of daily creativity.

ScrapCental just finished having a week long crop with loads of challenges so I had lots of motivation to get scrappin! And I made my scrappin resolution for this year...I plan on scrappin all of Jessi & Nyal's baby pics so that I will have some full albums to give them next year at Christmas. And my general resolution is to try to live a healthier life this year.

Well, enough about me, let's get to the latest projects...

This first one is a 16x20" canvas that I made for my brother for Christmas. It is filled with pictures of our dad who passed away in 1986. The quote I used has become one of my favorites when using pictures of him, and I used colors that work well in my bro's house.

These are a couple layouts that I made as part of the Scrapcentral challenges

And all these cards were also made to fulfill challenges. I was glad to get back into cardmaking mood also, since I really depleted my supply at the Farmer's Market and then as Christmas gifts.





And that is what I accomplished in the last week. I am trying to keep a running total this year to see how much I get done so as of today at 2:30pm I have made 2 LO's and 12 cards so far. Hopefully I'll be back soon posting even more cards and LO's! :)

I can't believe how fast this week went...

It seems like it was just yesterday that I was posting about the Farmer's Market! My husband's father took a really bad fall a couple weeks ago and he is still in the hospital. He is 85 years old and generally in really good health, but he apparently smacked his head so hard that he was knocked out. When they finally went to the dr. the next day they found out that he had a major concussion, bruised brain and fluid on the brain. According to MIL he is starting to get better, but it doesn't look like he'll be home for Christmas. My dh is really shook up about this so we are really glad that we will be up there in 2 days.

The reason I wrote about FIL is because MIL and SIL usually do a whack of baking each year, and for obvious reasons they haven't had the chance to do any, and me with my big mouth offered to make some before we come up and I'll make a couple other things when we get there.

I think I'm finally starting to take advantage of my own sleep rhythm...I took at least 3 or 4 naps yesterday, and then I was all primed and ready to get alot done while everyone else slept...and it worked great! I have at least 3x as much energy at night then I have at any other time. I started working on stuff around 9 pm and finally finished at 4am....I wrapped all the presents, made a canvas and did the Christmas cards that didn't need to be mailed.

Tonight I am testing my theory again...took a couple naps earlier and then woke up around 9 pm and have so far made a pan of squares, 5 dozen whipped shortbread and I have a pan of sugar coated pecans in the oven and when they are done I think I'll hit the hay and do a couple more things tomorrow.

Sorry no pics today, but I'll try to take some tomorrow.

Farmer's Market

Not the best pic, but I forgot to take my camera so I just had my bro take this with his phone. It turned out to be a really good day. There were over 50 vendors and the first couple hours were really busy. It was supposed to go until 6 pm but the storm was moving in so most people had left between 4:30-5:30 in hopes of beating the bad weather. Luckily we live in town, but we still packed up a half hour early.

This was my very first Farmer's Market and I was really happy with how well it went. Brad had come with me last night and we did most of the set up and then this morning my mom came with me first and then my sister came by and sat with me for a couple hours. After that Mercedes and my niece Britten came and were my little helpers.

I had gone into the experience hoping to make enough money to cover the cost of the table, and so when I had that covered within the first hour, I was pretty happy. It turned out to be a good day and worth the time I had put into it. I did however manage to spend half of what I earned there anyways, but I got few fun things. Whenever I make money with cards/scrapping I try to put at least some of the money back into it, so I bought a set of stamps and the Close to my Heart idea book and a couple other little things. I've never used any CTMH products before, but so far I'm impressed.

So all and all a great day and now it's onto the next project...a Christmas gift for my brother and a dvd slideshow for all the distant grandparents.

Been pretty busy...

Sorry that I have been having a tough time keeping up my blog, but I really have been busy! I just found out yesterday that I got a table at the up-coming Farmer's Market. I'm a little nervous because this will be my first time doing it, but as long as I make enough to pay the table fee than I will be happy! Brad is making me some little risers to go on each side of the table so that we can set up the cards and the front ones won't be blocking the back ones. I will have all my cards there for sale, and my mom has a few things she wants to put out too. I've got some business cards so I will be displaying some of my canvases and scrapbooking to see if there is any interest in custom scrapbooking. I'm sure the whole experience will be a learning experience but it will be interesting how it all works out.

Here are a few of the cards I made in the last couple days.

Lots of new stuff to look at...

I haven't been very talkative lately, but I'm still keeping busy scrappin and card making and Christmas gift making and all the other things that pull me away from my computer. Anyhoo, here's just a few of my projects over the last couple weeks.