Orca Cove

The Shack

2009-02-03T16:26:00.001-05:00

I just finished reading the best book I have read (aside from the Bible) in 25 years.

For many years, my favourite all-time book has been "And The Sea Will Tell" by Vincent Bugliosi. I recently ordered the DVD on-line and it renewed itself as my favourite all-time book/movie ever...

Until, that is, I was talking to my mom about my health (I'm sure I have grumbled enough by now that you all know that I have been battling a daily massive migraine for well over a year now).

Anyway, I was saying to my mom that although I do truly believe that God does not give us more than we can handle, I think that maybe He thinks I am a lot stronger than I really am.

My mom told me that I had to read "The Shack" by William P. Young (a Canadian author). It is THE best book I have ever read (I think maybe even better than the Bible!! - if, as a Christian I can say that).

It had all the aspects of a great story that I love, crime, love, suspense, surprise, and it even answered some questions that I did not know that I had!

If you never read another book again, this has to be the one book that you read!

You can find out more about this book on the web site:

www.theshackbook.com

I am not sure if that will give away any of the book or not but everyone should definitely read the book and tell everyone you know about it!

Thanks for letting me share this great book with you and please let me know what you think of it.

p.s. I am not related to the author nor am I receiving anything for recommending this book!

Scor-Pal

2009-02-01T02:16:00.005-05:00

As an early Valentine's gift, my darling husband got me a Scor-Pal - a tool for scoring card stock from my local scrapbook store, Paper Paridise, seen here and I love it so much I am not sure how I managed without one this long!

I made a few cards for upcoming birthdays and a Thinking of You card for a new friend.

I totally CASE'd these cards from the Scor-Pal web site and can't wait to try some more of their ideas!

I thought that this card was so cute that I made two for two of our niece's that have birthdays coming up soon. This is the front of the card.

This is the inside of the card that pops-up the butterflies when you open it - cute eh?

This card is one that I made for a new friend - I love the textured background that the Scor-Pal made on the Confetti CS.

This is a close-up of the "grid" background.

This card I made for my sister-in-law whose birthday is coming up this month. It also has a grid background that you can't see very well in the picture, but that is okay because I stamped on the wrong side of the cs and the bumps of the grid are on the back!

SWEET 16!!

2009-01-14T09:41:00.006-05:00

Wow, it's been almost a month since I've posted to my blog. Sorry about that!

Our baby girl turns 16 today! Where has the time gone?? We surprised her this morning with 16 long stem red roses and some helium balloons (our gift to her is the cost of her driver's license test and Driver's Ed), plus a few other little things. She has shown some aptitude and skill the few times she has driven already, but I would suggest that you stay off the sidewalks and out of the ditches for a few months!

We are so very thankful for Caitlin and cherish the blessings that she brings to our family.

We are so proud of the young lady that she is growing into.
This is a card that I rushed to get done this morning (I know, that's cutting it close a little, time wise).

I also made a couple of other cards since my last post, this one was for our nephew's 10th birthday the other was given to my in-laws along with their gift from all of us.

Merry Christmas 2008

2008-12-17T10:54:00.016-05:00

I am sorry for having been absent for so long. Although a lot has been going on, there is nothing really new to report about my health. They did discover a small aneurism in late October but apparently that is not what is causing my daily pain so we are basically back where we started over a year ago, with no real answers.

Anyway, I wanted to share the Christmas cards, stocking stuffers and gifts that I have made this year. Because of my head, I tried to keep them simple and without a lot of detail or work, but I think that they all turned out fairly nice in the end.

The first is a photo calendar that I made for my cousin for our family gift name draw this year. The idea is for her to add special photos throughout the year. I used some SU cardstock and supplies but the rest is DSP from Costco. Oh, and I used our binding machine to put it all together.

These are little chap stick holders (see previous post for tutorial) that I made as stocking stuffers for our nieces and nephews. I really like how these turned out. The outside is SU card stock stamped with Gold ink using an SU snowflake wheel and the inside is lined with Costco DSP.

I totally CASE'd these next cards from one shared by Marlayne Hardy in my stamping group. I changed the colour schemes and the stamps but the idea totally came from Marlayne! Imitation is the best form of flattery!

This next card was also based on one shared by Katrina Fielding in my stamping group. On Katrina's card she had a DSP background and had mounted the tree on the Top Note Die from the BigShot machine, but I like the simplicity of the plain background and added a few snow flakes (glitter glue) on half of the cards to mix it up a little.

These next two pictures try to show the glitter that I embossed onto the tree to look like fresh fallen snow.

I've made several of these little note books and I decided that they would make great little stocking stuffers as well as little gifts so I made a bunch more for Christmas this year. I believe that the original idea came from fellow stamper, Amy Celona, so I do have to give her credit, as I love making them and people love getting them. The little note book pages are perforated so that is an extra bonus!

A few weeks ago, a member of our stampers group, Tania Kronberg, shared a gift card holder. As we have two gift cards to give to the same person, I thought I would try to adapt her original idea and figure out how I could make a double-gift card-holder. It is not actual gift card size (because I wanted it smaller) but it wouldn't be hard to re-adapt it to fit a gift card size.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYAN!

2008-10-16T16:10:00.004-04:00

A very special young man I know turns 10 years old today!

He happens to be the brother of my Goddaughter, Kaylee, whose card I posted just last month.

I love all these kids that we moved so far away from and we miss them terribly!

He is going to be getting his card late too (at least I'm equally off the ball for everyone)! After a week with a very sick son, another week visiting with my family, a now very sick husband and all of this on top of battling this horrific migraine that won't go away, Ryan is getting this card that I made forever ago when I was trying out the then new-to-me "brayered sky" technique.

Happy Birthday Ryan! We hope you have a super, fantastic day and get lots of great presents!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-10-10T06:00:00.001-04:00

OK, I know it is not quite Thanksgiving yet, but my family is coming tonight (my parents from Nova Scotia and my sister and her family from Hamilton) and although they are not my whole family (my brother and his family are also in Nova Scotia but they cannot come this time) we have not been together for any holiday since we moved to Ontario three and a half years ago.

They are staying until later in the week next week so I will likely be too busy visiting and catching up to do much posting to my blog and for that I apologize, but I hope to have some great things to post the following week (maybe even a video tutorial!).

I wish everyone the best of holidays and many rich blessings to be thankful for this weekend and for the rest of the year.

Happy Birthday Big Steve!

2008-10-09T08:36:00.004-04:00

Sorry for the absence yesterday, we have a very sick little guy at home (his fever got up to 105.4 last night - of course I wasn't home, I was out shopping - bad, bad, mother). Anyway, we are off to take him to a clinic this morning but I wanted to post a quick Happy Birthday to my husband's brother-in-law. Since my husband's name is Steve, and the kids have another uncle Steve (who happens to be well over 6 feet tall), they call him "big Uncle Steve".

This is a quick card I managed to get together and even in the mail (hopefully in time). Here is a closer look at the card front.

Hopefully when I have more time I will edit this post to include the recipe for this card, but for now,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVE - we are thinking about you and hope you are having a great day!

The Day After

2008-10-07T07:50:00.005-04:00

In spite of my head, I had a great day yesterday! I got LOTS of great gifts (on top of the 40-every-15-minutes) and I'm thinking that turning 40 isn't so bad after all!

I hope this isn't too "lucky, lucky, me" but after the year I've had and all the grumbling I've done about my head and my health, I'm glad to write about something positive for a change. And despite my head, yesterday was a very positive day!

On top of the great gifts I got Sunday night from my husband and neighbours, my husband's Aunt brought me this cute little fall center piece with the tiny little Pilgrims. And an orca whale folder!! and a beautiful homemade birthday card along with a home made bookmark - she used velvet ribbon and stamps and somehow ironed my name into the velvet - too cool!

We also got a bit of stamping done and here's a picture of the rushed card I made for a little girl who goes to the daycare next door.

Our kids got me a car stereo, so now I can put away all my cassette tapes and listen to my favourite CD's again.

I hope you were all as curious about the 40-gifts-every-15-minutes as I was. It took me all day (with a few interruptions along the way) and I finally opened the last gift around 6:30PM! But what a fun day it was - I recommend that everyone use this idea - it was so much fun! I just clipped a kitchen timer to the gift bag, opened my first gift, and set the timer for 15 minutes and then the fun began! I got some great gifts and I'm not sure I can even pick a favourite!

Happy Birthday to Me!

2008-10-06T08:00:00.001-04:00

Today is my 40th birthday. I'm not sure how I feel about that exactly. I don't really feel 40 'cause that sounds so old - well, with my head the way it has been I guess I do "feel" old, but I hope it's true what they say about 40 being the new 20! (That is what they say right)??

I woke up to find this lovely sign that our daughter made for me - on a neon sign board.

My husband also gave me a gift certificate for a very nice clothing store in Ottawa. I guess now I really do have to throw out my favourite ratty, old blue sweater that he has hated for the 6 and a half years that we have been together (although I told him I could buy 20 sweaters at WalMart for the amount of the gift certificate). I really don't like shopping and maybe I like being a bit of a frumpy, old housewife, but I guess a-shopping I must go!

My husband took me out to dinner last night with our dear friends and neighbours. It was really great to get out for a couple of hours (without the kids) and I got a lovely gift and homemade card from my neighbours.

While we were out, my husband's brother, his wife and their four girls dropped off a gift for me too. I should say gifts, plural, because they left a bag filled with 40 presents and instructions to open one gift every 15 minutes!

I totally suck at math, but hubby tells me that it will take me 10 hours to open all the gifts!

I have never heard of anything like that before (although I shouldn't be surprised, they always come up with pretty cool gift ideas. On our son's second birthday they wrapped his gift and put it in a big box filled with helium balloons).

Having 40 presents to open is such a thoughtful and exciting gift - I have something to look forward to ALL day!

Plus, my husband's aunt is coming over in the morning, bringing lunch, and we will get to do a little stamping before our son gets home from school!

If only my head would stop hurting, I couldn't ask for a better way to spend this milestone birthday!

Sympathy Card

2008-10-03T08:00:00.001-04:00

Since I'm in a gloomy mood, (just call me Eeyore) I decided to share this sympathy card I made recently for a friend who happened to lose both her grandfathers in the same week.

I used the stamp set "Close As A Memory" and Bravo Burgundy, Naturals Ivory and Sahara Sand Card Stock and Bravo Burgundy and Sahara Sand ink.

For this card I used a liner that I got from a pack of paper that I got at the dollar store (I think it was part of a wedding scrapbook sample DSP pack) and I liked the subtle leaves on the background that matched the leaves (from the "Remembering You" stamp set) I put on the outside of the envelope.

A Very Un-Happy Anniversary To Me

2008-10-02T09:00:00.002-04:00

Today it is exactly one year since this horrific migraine I have been sufferring from started and I am really no further ahead then I was a year ago.

Despite taking every medication you can imagine, narcotic and otherwise we still have not figured out a solution to this problem. I have seriously tried everything that you can think of. I've taken muscle relaxants, anti-inflamatories, migraine prevention meds, altitude meds (what mountain climbers take - this is supposed to help with my migraine getting worse when a storm is coming or there is a change in the barometric pressure), seeing two neurologists, several doctors, a craniosacral massage therapist, getting x-rays, blood work and an MRI we still don't know what is wrong with me.

I even got some sort of injections a couple of weeks ago, that were suppoesd to freeze and numb the muscles in my head and neck. One ingredient was xylocaine, and some people, about 20% of the population, have an adverse reaction to the "caine" family of meds, and 3% of those people have a serious, severe reaction and unfortunately, I fall into that 3% catagory, so I was really suferring on top of this migraine that I have had for a year now.

I am not even sure that what I am experiencing is an actual migraine. I have had migraines for my whole life and although this is really no different, only lasting longer (much, much longer) and when it gets bad, it gets really bad, and there have only been two days in the last 365 days that I have not had to take something for the pain. I think that whatever this is, it is just presenting as a migraine and that is why none of the migraine meds are working.

A very good friend suggested that I "spit at fate and have a party for yourself on the 2nd where you have a manicure and buy yourself a good book and eat sweets." I love this friend dearly and she has been a great support and as much as I would love to follow her suggestion, my head hurts too much to party (I don't drink but that is about the only thing that I haven't tried to try to help my head), my nails are a mess and not really "manicure ready," I am still struggling through a book I borrowed (it's hard to focus on the words when my head hurts) and as much as I love chocolate, it seems to make my head worse. So, I decided that I am going to take a raincheck on my friends suggestions and as soon as I am feeling better, I am going to do exactly what she said!

I see the neurologist again on Friday so I am hoping that we can come up with some other course of action - one that doesn't involve my mother's suggestion of "amputation at the neck."

It has been a long, hard year that has really taken its toll on everyone but I am hoping and praying that this next year will get better.

I've decided that that is what I want for my 40th birthday on October 6, for my migraine to stop so if anyone knows where I can get that, please let my hubby know, because he keeps asking what he can get me.

I started this post with the title "A Very Un-Happy Anniversary To Me" but I am celebrating today that I have made it through this past year despite the debilitating, daily pain and lack of a solution to whatever ails me.

And I will keep on keeping on and be ever so thankful that I have a very supportive husband, an amazing daughter (who has really pitched in too much over this past year) and a wonderful son who despite my being here but not really being here, seems to be growing up just fine.

The Seven "S"'s

2008-10-01T09:13:00.007-04:00

Today's post is all about the letter "S" (please do not adjust your set, you have not stumbled onto Sesame Street by mistake).

The Seven S's stand for:

1. Swaps
2. Shares
3. Stamping
4. Sales
5. Surprises
6. Sickness
7. Shoppers Drug Mart

1. Swaps - we had a small team meeting last night and one fun aspect is getting to swap cards with other team members.
This is the card I made to swap. I left the bottom right corner blank so that they could put whatever sentiment (Happy Birthday, Thinking of You, etc) that they wanted.

This is the swap card made by Karen.

This card was made by Lucia (if I get a link for her I will post it).

2. We also take items to share with the group to our team meetings and these are the two things that I took to share.

This is the birthday card that I made for my husband for his birthday in early September.

You've seen these little note pads before and they are still one of my favourite projects to make.

3. We also got to do some stamping and made these things last night. They incorporate two of the new in-colours, Pacific Point (the blue) and Kiwi Kiss (the green) and some new stamp sets, Say it With Scallops and Inspired By Nature.

4. Karine (our team leader) had some of the retired stamps sets on sale and I couldn't resist getting these two, Best Blossoms (it's not even mounted yet!) and Stippled Stencils.

5. There were also some surprises - during the door prise draw, I won some chap stick with the SU logo on them and when Karine went to Convention, she brought back these adorable key chains.

6. I arrived home at around 9:45PM to discover that we have a sick little boy. He had fallen asleep during supper, then got sick at 9:00PM then whimpered and complained about his ear hurting. We decided to take him to the ER at around 2:00AM since none of us were getting any sleep anyway.

7. Which brings me to my last "S" - Shoppers Drug Mart - where (since the Children's Advil has finally kicked in) we are headed since our son does not like Grape flavoured medicine and it's a battle to get him to take it so we are off in search of Cherry flavoured Advil!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GLEN!

2008-09-30T09:44:00.003-04:00

Today is my brother-in-law's birthday (I won't tell you how OLD he is, only that it's older than me!!)

When I made a pop-up slider card like this for his daughter's birthday in August (I forgot to get a picture of it), he said it was one of his favourites that I had made over the years, so I decided to make him one too.

Recipe:

Card Stock: Always Artichoke, Naturals White, Chocolate Chip

Stamp Set: Nobel Deer, Warmest Regards

Ink: VersaMark, Stampin' Write Markers - Always Artichoke, More Mustard, Close to Cocoa, Brocade Blue

Accessories: Snail, Glue Stick, ribbon, brad, Slit Punch, 1/16th Circle Punch

Mini Back Packs

2008-09-29T09:00:00.003-04:00

My up-line's up-line, Karine, shared these cute little back packs with our stamping group and they were just the perfect thing to use for two of our nephew's birthdays this past summer.

I also made cute little cards to go in the back packs and the strip on the left is where we tucked some money (boys are so hard to buy for - especially at their age).

Recipe:

Card Stock: Tempting Turquoise, Gable Green, DSP, Confetti White

Stamp Sets: Elementary Essentials, Short Order Alphabet

Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Gable Green, VersaMark

Accessories: ribbon, snail, sticky strip, velcro dots (dollar store), Spiral Punch, silver eyelets (Crafters Tool Kit), Heat Tool and Fine Cosmo Stampin' Glitter, Heat & Stick Powder

Missing Caitlin

2008-09-26T09:00:00.000-04:00

Our daughter Caitlin went to Nova Scotia for a month this past summer and boy did we sure miss her - Matthew especially.

But what a great opportunity to try a few new techniques. My son made a card for Caitlin using the Marble Background technique (I think that's what it is called) and a new technique posted on the SU website on Faux Metal. I also made a card for my husband for our anniversary and if I can find it, I will post a picture of it as well.

Matthew did this whole card himself, following what I was doing with my card and I think he did a great job. Not bad for a three year old eh? I wrote out the letters on a piece of scrap paper for him to copy into the card and Caitlin has a name stamp that Matthew "just had to use" as well.

The background is done by using a cotton ball, rubbing alcohol and re-inkers (Blue Bayou, Purely Pomegranate and Soft Sky) and just daubing it all over your glossy card stock.

For the Faux Metal technique, we used Silver Embossing Powder, VersaMark, and just ink, embossed, dried (with the Heat Tool), inked, embossed, dried, inked, embossed, dried about 3-4 times, then stamped the Butterfly image (Time Well Spent - Hostess) into the still warm "Faux Metal" - we also embossed the thinking of you stamp from the For A Friend Hostess Set.

Happy Birthday Angela!

2008-09-25T09:00:00.003-04:00

One of my very bestest (that's a word, right?) friends is having a birthday today - and yet again, another card is going to be late. It's not even in the mail yet and this time there is no excuse, I've had the card made for months, I have envelopes, stamps and her address! Tsk, tsk, shame on me.

Anyway, I copied this card loosely from a card given to me by my neighbour, and if you look closely, you'll notice that I really, really need to get a new cutting blade for my cutter!

Recipe:

Card Stock: textured Bashful Blue, Brilliant Blue, DSP (Prints pack - Hostess)

Stamps: Serene Spring (Hostess)

Accessories: Scallop Punch, Circle Punch, Snail, ribbon, button

Looking at the card now, I think I would have liked to round the corners of the dark blue square behind the scallop circle.

Diaper Fold Pouch

2008-09-24T09:00:00.001-04:00

This is another project taken from the Splitcoaststampers Weekly Inkling Featured Tutorial and I made this little pouch and filled it with little die cuts, flowers, etc. as a thank you to one of my customers.

Recipe:

Card Stock: Wild Wasabi DSP (Hostess), Apricot Appeal, Wild Wasabi

Stamps: Warmest Regards (Hostess)

Ink: Basic Black

Accessories: Scallop Punch, 5-Petal Flower Punch, Spring Flower Bouquet Punch, Sticky Strip, Brad

Dahlia Fold

2008-09-23T09:00:00.000-04:00

One of the things I like to do is to try to attempt all of the Featured Tutorials from Splitcoaststampers - and way back on March 19, 2008, the tutorial was on a technique called the Dahlia Fold.

I made this card and attached it to a card base for our niece's 16th birthday. (I think I forgot to take a picture of the final card before we gave it to her, but I believe I just made a card base from Apricot Appeal card stock and attached this to the front of that base).

If you check out the Splitcoaststampers website, there are many samples using this technique, however, I wasn't really pleased with how my attempts at making a whole flower turned out so I just stuck to making the little flower buds for this card.

Recipe:

Card Stock: Wild Wasabi, Apricot Appeal, Wild Wasabi and Apricot Appeal DSP (Hostess), Whisper White

Stamps: Warmest Regards

Accessories: Love & Happiness Old Olive Rub-Ons from Sale-A-Bration 2008, Old Olive Stampin' Write Marker, Corner Rounder, Oval Punch, Scissors, Snail, Glue Stick, Mini Glue Dots

It's Baby Time

2008-09-22T09:05:00.006-04:00

And, no, not for us - we're done having kids. Our daughter will turn 16 in January and our son will turn 4 in November. I will turn 40 (gasp) on October 6 - so we are definitely, definitely, done!

However, we do know lots of people who are having babies, in fact, a very good friend in Nova Scotia just phoned last night to let us know that they are expecting in April!

I made this little project quite a while ago, what I call a Baby Milestone Box, (when made it I put "Baby's Firsts" on the box, but I think I like "Baby Milestones" better, don't you? Anyway, I got the inspiration from the creative genius of Beate Johns while visiting her blog here. Don't visit unless you have hours and hours to spend - because that's how long you will want to stay and be amazed at her work!

I tweaked it a little since I didn't have a band aid tin but I used a travel Q-Tip container and went from there.

I went through both my kid's baby books as well as my memory bank to think of cards to put into this little memory container.

The outside of the container I decorated with patterned paper that I can't recall where I got but the rest of the recipe is as follows:

Card Stock: Almost Amethyst, Barely Banana, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue

Stamp Sets: Elementary Essentials, Year-Round Fun II, Riviting (Hostess)

Ink: Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue

Accessories: Tag Punch, Sticky Strip, Glue Stick

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAYLEE!!

2008-09-19T15:50:00.005-04:00

A very special girl I know and love dearly (and miss almost as much) is celebrating her 9th birthday today.

If not for my head being so bad, I would be more on the ball and my only Godchild would not only not be seeing her birthday card for the first time over the internet, but she would also not be getting her birthday card late either!

I'm sorry Kaylee that I didn't get this in the mail in time for it to get to you for your birthday.

I hope you have a super, fantastic party and know that I am thinking about you, miss you more than you can imagine and love you more than that!

This is a surprise pop-up slider card that I found here one day while blog surfing.

I love this card and it has become a favourite.

Recipe:

Card Stock: Pixie Pink, Whisper White

Stamps: Serene Spring (Hostess), Favourite Teddy Bear, A Greeting For All Reasons, Sweet Dreams (Hostess)

Ink: Pixie Pink, Close to Cocoa, Versa Mark, Pixie Pink, Barely Banana, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Mellow Moss Satmpin' Write Markers,

Accessories: Whisper WHite Grosgain Ribbon, Sticky Strip, Glue Stick, brads, dimensionals, scallop punch

Finally a Project!

2008-09-17T09:14:00.005-04:00

I think I should have been a politician! After all the broken promises of posting cards or projects, I am FINALLY getting around to doing what I said I would!

I am not sure where I stumbled across this particular project, likely while blog surfing, but this one I got from here.

These are great little note pads that I make as Thank You gifts for friends and family.

The purple one I made for my next door neighbour for coming with me for moral and emotional support to a healing service at our church. The green one I ended up giving to the secretary at a neurologists office for fitting me in at the last last minute because I had already been waiting for 6 months to see a neurologist and I was just basically walking in off the street and they gave me an appointment. I stamped an image on just the first page of both these note pads.

The ship one I made for my husband's boss and the other three were made for three of our nieces to thank them for looking after Matthew one day when my head was really bad. For the note pads I made for our nieces I stamped their initials on each page.

Recipe For all Note Pads:

Card Stock: Vintage Violet, Elegant Eggplant, True Thyme, Handsome Hunter, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, Cool Caribbean, Tempting Turquoise, Marigold Morning, Always Artichoke, Whisper White

Stamp Sets: Garden Silhouettes (Hostess), Fine Lace (background), French Script (background), Measure of a Life (Hostess), Merci, Winds of Grace, Serene Spring (Hostess), Give Thanks, So Swirly (Jumbo Wheel), Sweet Dreams (Hostess), Short Order Alphabet

Ink: Vintage Violet, Handsome Hunter, Versamark, Blue Bayou, basic Black, VersaMark, Close to Cocoa, Cool Caribbean, Always Artichoke, Stampin' Write Markers, Stampin' Pastels

Accessories: Slit Punch, Spring Flower Punch, 5-Petal Flower Punch, Oval Punch, 1/16 Punch, Gold & Sliver Elastic Cord, Sticky Strip, glue stick, Snail, brads

If you would like me to post a tutorial for these cute little note pads, please just leave a comment or send me an e-mail.

Family First

2008-09-16T09:39:00.004-04:00

Sometimes, ok, all the time, my family comes first over my hobbies, over everything, but especially today when I won't be posting any cards or projects, and I'll tell you why.

Not because I didn't get organized again or because my head still hurts (which it does, despite getting some sort of injections in the base of my skull and the back of my neck last night) but because while just playing around in our back yard (before the coyotes decided to come out (but if they came out later we didn't notice - although I did set up Matthew's old camera baby monitor so I may be able to catch them on film if they come back), we got some great impromptu family pictures that I wanted to share.

I think that these are the best kind. My hair is a mess, Matthew is in his pj bottoms, Caitlin rushed out at the last minute because she had been inside doing homework and it was getting late and getting dark very quickly when I called her out for these special "Kodak Moments" and if you look closely, you see that my lovely purple crocks match so well with my black and red sweater!

But, like I said, these un-planned non-prim-and-proper, not-stiff-n-stuffy family pictures are my favourites.

Caitlin & Matthew
Caitlin
Me & Caitlin
Me & Stephen
Matthew
Matthew & Me
Stephen & Matthew
Matthew, Me & Caitlin
Stephen, Matthew & Caitlin

The Best Of Intentions vs. Murphy's Law

2008-09-15T08:43:00.009-04:00

Ok, so here's the thing, I wanted to basically start where I left off, which was around June/July, when I posted pictures of cards that I had made for our parent's birthdays and anniversaries. Well, as fate would have it, and according to Murphy's Law, which states that if anything can go wrong, it will, as for my migraine, this happened to be one of the worst weekends I've had in a long time.

So, that means, that all of the planning and organizing that I wanted to get gone, didn't happen.

Oh, and did I mention that we also had a few coyotes move into our backyard this weekend? And I mean right into our backyard. They were camping out under our apple trees (which are about 50 feet from our house, by the way) all night Friday night. Not that I wasn't up all night anyway because of my head, but I wasn't too happy about having a couple of coyotes (which could easily multiply as I hear they travel in packs) that just wouldn't leave. The first time I noticed them was around 12:30AM and I heard a noise, went inside, got a flashlight, shone the light on them, went back inside, got the camera and tried to get a picture (the flash didn't scare them away either). I would have thought that all of the opening and closing of the door, the flashlight, the flashes of the camera etc, would have made them move,but nope, they stayed put). Then I went in and woke up my husband, and THEY WERE STILL THERE - we shone the flashlight on them again and only when they heard us talking did they casually "SAUNTER" away! An hour later, they were back - and they were climbing the tree.

I know, I know, my husband told me that coyotes do not climb trees but they were at least jumping up into the tree (some of the branches are pretty horizontal) and I know this because I saw they jumping out of the tree. I even yelled at them to get lost and they still kept coming back!

Saturday night my husband (brave but foolish man - since there were at least three of them now) chased after the coyotes and got within 40 feet of them before they took off. Later that night we had deer under the apple trees and the deer were back last night (Sunday night) so maybe chasing after them worked and I am hoping that the coyotes won't be back again - EVER!!

Well, while I was up Friday night because of my head (which I am sure was made worse by our unwelcome visitors in the night, I did do a little scrapbooking of Matthew's first day of Junior Kindergarten so that is where I have to start with my blogging today.

Hopefully, I can get back on track and catch up chronologically by the end of the week.

Oh, and before anyone else says what my husband did, no I do not plan on doing 5-6 pages for every day that Matthew goes to school so we do not need a truck load of scrapbooks nor do we need to buy a new house just to keep the scrapbooks in. A kids first day of school is a very important day and I had picked a few really special pictures that I wanted to include.

The pages didn't turn out exactly as I wanted them to, but keep in mind that my head was really bad and I was worried about the coyotes!

Most of the background paper is from a great package that I got from Costco.

This title page lettering was printed on the computer using a great scrapbooking computer program and ClickArt Fonts II.

In case you can't make it out - it says "Matthew's in JK"

The stamp set used on this page is SU's Elementary Essentials and SU's Whisper White, Brilliant Blue and Yoyo Yellow Card Stock and Ink.

The journaling says "While Matthew was waiting for the bus in his new Cars shirt, "flashing" Cars sneakers, new blue jeans and new Cars backpack (and his McQueen tattoo from the church carnival) he explained to Caleb that one of the key tags on his backpack had a picture of Teddy and the other key tag had a picture of Mommy and Daddy on one side and a picture of Caitlin on the other side. Mommies and Daddies and Teddies can't go to school but taking the pictures meant that we were kind of going to school with him just in case he started to miss us, then he could just look at the pictures and there we would be, right there with him."

The card stock used on this page was SU's Real Red, Glorious Green, Whisper White and the stamp set again was Elementary Essentials. I also used SU's Uni-Ball Signo White Gel Pen.

Under the top right picture is says "But I want to miss the bus." The bottom pictures from left to right read 1. "Joy" (the bus driver) 2. "Come on Matthew, it will be okay" - Caleb 3. & 4. I don't want to go!"

For the text on this page I used the RBG colour code for Bravo Burgundy and printed the text on the Costco paper on my computer. Oh, and I used the SU new Scallop Edge punch to frame the text and for the journaling and the title and alng the inside right edge.

The journaling says "We set up Teddy and Doggy to wait for Matthew to get home from school to tell them all about his first day of school." Missing from this page is the caption under my picture that "Mommy is just a little sad to see her three year old baby off to school so soon and even though he's only been gone for three seconds, she is missing him already."

For this last page I used SU's Tempting Turquoise and Green Galore Card Stock and the RBG colour Code for Green Galore to print the text. I also used foam letters and numbers from the dollar store (not sure if it was Dollarama or The Dollar Store or A buck or Two) but I call them all the dollar sore - my favourite place to shop!

The journaling on this last page says "Despite Matthew wanting to miss the bus, not wanting to get on and the tears when he got on the bus in the morning, he was all smiles when he got off the bus at lunch time. His teacher said that he had a great day."

What's To Come

2008-09-11T09:14:00.002-04:00

My son started JK yesterday and although there were a few tears (and no, they were not all his) it went better than expected as we did not have to peel him off us like a banana and although he looked like a sad lost puppy getting on the bus, he was all smiles getting off the bus, so I guess all in all, it was a good first day for him.

I was going to post a couple of pictures, but I decided that my first project will be to start a JK scrapbook for him so I will share that as a work-in-progress and the pictures I was going to post will be part of that.

Which, since Matthew starts school full-time on Monday, gives me the weekend to get prepared for my first posting, which I haven't even really thought out yet, so I'd better get busy.

I'm going to have to plan my time a little better though I think. I was hoping to post daily to make up for the long absence but, with that plus wanting to scrapbook a JK book for Matthew and help our daughter scrapbook a book on the Jonas Brothers concert that she and my husband went to in New York, I'd really better get busy!

Plus, I'm a little behind in my card making and have a few cards to make for several birthdays that are coming up, (including my own - 40 this year - YIKES!! - but, I'm calling it my perfect b-day - 20/20 - just like eyesight - get it?).

Yup, I did take my meds and really should get off the computer now, I've got some organizing to do, some planning, some card making, some scrapbooking.....some pictures to get ready to post for Monday, some typing to ready to post for Monday - some thoughts to get ready to go with whatever pictures and typing I'm posting on Monday (I think I've got the order of that all messed up, but I'll figure it out by Monday)!

Disclaimer (of sorts)

2008-09-05T09:13:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned, I hope to share a bunch of cards and projects that I have been working on over the past little while (some I may even be digging up from the archives - just to demonstrate how far I have come).

Some are my own creations but most have come from CASE-ing (a stamping and scrapbooking term for Copy And Share Everything) that has proven most resourceful and inspirational.

Some ideas have come from the SU catalogue, some from fellow SU demos, some from fellow bloggers, and wherever possible, I will try to give credit where credit is due but one of the most frustrating side effects of this horrible migraine of mine is a terrible loss of memory. I literally cannot retain any information and usually have to carry around a note pad and pen just to jot down simple things like what my husband tells me he would like for supper. If he tells me he would like meatloaf in the morning and I don't write it down, he seriously would likely end up with banana loaf or meat pie or something because I would have completely forgotten what he really said just a few hours earlier.

Anyway, all that to say that if you see any of your original work here and I have not given you credit for it, please, set me straight and I will gladly tip my hat to you.

One of my most treasured benefits of joining SU and groups like Splitcoaststampers is the wonderful resource of friends and fellow demonstrators that I have met who are all more than willing to offer advice and share ideas, tips and techniques. So I really want to make sure that I do not offend anyone or mislead anyone into thinking that some great card or project that you see here on my blog may have been my very own idea from the start - most are not. I usually just take other cards, projects, etc. and give them my own little spin, a tweak here, a tug there, and most usually, a mistake or two and then you get my version.