I'm not quite dead yet!

For any fans of "The Holy Grail" you'll recognize the title of this post as a classic line. So fitting, as I feel almost, but not quite, dead. Ugh. So many things to gripe about but not here, not now. I went to the gym with Jilly and Jen for the first time in 2 weeks and I feel a whole heck of a lot better. Working out is a such an easy fix to my whoas. I wish it was easier to get myself to go because once I'm there I want to work out forever and I feel so great!!! Time. All I need is time. When you don't sit for more than 30 seconds in a day its really hard to put on the sneakers and sweat it out... but I did it! So enough of that.
I have the best news: my fake (I prefer the term "familialy challenged") nephew has arrived! He's perfect and adorable and wonderful in every way! Introducing Wyatt Jonathon:

Oh how I love thee!

My goal is to post a few short posts in the next couple days and actually accomplish something on a crafty date with the SILs (this did not happen :( but hopefully will soon) and at the TM Christmas party this weekend (this already happened and I DID craft - posts to come) to share in the upcoming weeks.

Five Minute Card

So I set my timer again yesterday; this time for 5 minutes. I made a simple birthday card for my soon-to-be BIL. I thought it was cute to use the little boy patterns for his 28th birthday... why not? A quick post for an even faster card.

A Birthday Card to Finish the Week

Here is my last card from my Whack-a-Stack with Jen. I'm thinking it will turn out to be a birthday card for Bella as her birthday is in October and I'll be teaching and well, let's be realistic, crafty will become a distant memory. I had fun designing a little sentiment for the front using Microsoft Word; I swear I use that program for everything! Helpful hint: buy mismatched envelopes at Hallmark for a buck. You get approximately 25 envelopes depending on the bunch and then you can make your cards to suit. It saves the frustration of trying to find an envelope that fits your beautiful, handmade card after the fact and it's super cheap. The first Kidz Kamp at TM is tomorrow - hope we have a blast!

Side note: We will be flying home from Vegas today. Sad face.

Swinging from the Chandeliers... In Vegas!!!

Today is Mom's birthday and we are celebrating in Vegas. I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures from the actual day (I'm really writing this before we have even left) to post and scrap when we get back. For now here's a little card that I made for Mama. She loves pink and bling so I put a little of both on the card. The interior reads: Hope you find yourself swinging from many chandeliers! There are also a few sweet sentiments written inside but because we were to be in Vegas, I simple could not help putting something a little more Vegas-ee than sweet. I bet we're having a blast right now :)

Carried on Butterfly Wings

This is a card for two of my dear teacher friends who recently lost their son only a few months into his new life. He was born with a heart condition and subsequently suffered a stroke. I still cannot fathom this tragedy but I believe that everything happens for a reason. Instead of a funeral, they had a celebration of life at the Devonian Botanical Gardens. In their invitation they expressed their desire for everyone to come and enjoy a moment of peace and tranquility with their loved ones as time together is a precious thing. I could not be at the service but I will be sending this card in the mail and David and I still intend to visit the gardens for the very reason they expressed. The interior of the card reads:

As a butterfly graces our lives with a moment's fragile beauty, so too has {your baby's} presence blessed you, and those that surround you. May you find peace and joy with each butterfly that passes, knowing that {your baby} lives on in the hearts of all they touched.

Thank you for reminding me of the importance of love and relationships and to be grateful for the life and time I am given little baby. You have shown your parents a love they never knew and reminded us all of an important lesson.

All Little Girls Love Bunnies... Don't They?

As promised, another card. This one is meant for a new baby girl. I did a baby boy one with the same sentiment on the front and I loved it so I made one for a girl. My bestie Kirsten (K2, yes I have a best friend with the same name, no it's not weird) is pregnant with her first child. She doesn't know what she's having but if she has a girl I'm sure her girl will like bunnies, right? I still think the card is lacking but I'm not sure what I want to do yet... think, think, think.

I used my new We R Memory Keepers SEWeasy. It was fab. I actually have a blister on my pointer finger from forcing some embroidery on another page earlier in the week so I was very grateful to have this handy lil' feller.

Whacking Another Stack... or Small Pile

Well Jen (my SIN) came over for dinner and crafting last night. As per usual, she was much more productive than me.That girl really knows how to whack... a stack that is! She made some adorable cards. Sixteen to be exact. My most favorite is the card using the high school cut-outs that I forced her to use as a wedding card. I'm totally going to copy :)

I was crafting at my usual snails pace but enjoying every minute of it. I finished 5 cards; a triumph! Here's a really cute one that someone (I'm not sure who; David, Jen, Heather and I were all in on the action at one point) came up with. Everyone seemed to think that they were squid. Only once I started to put my card in an envelope did I notice/remember that they are jellyfish. Ugh! Meh. Still cute.

I designed and printed the little quote in a circle using a liberated ink splat from Google. The paper is ancient Bam Pop, I believe, and the other circles are a cut Hambly transparency.

I'm hoping to post one of my cards each day these week. I craft so slowly, I have to drag it out :) Plus, I'm going to Vegas this week so I'll have these posts ready ahead of time. Yeppers! Vegas with my mom and sister - we are going to have such a good time! I can't wait!

And Then There Was Finn

There are A LOT of showers happening on my husband's side of the family lately. Everyone is pregnant or getting married, or both! I met the newest addition to the family today: Finn. Not Finnegan, just Finn. He's adorable. I would show you some pictures if I had had the where-with-all to take some. You see, I was in a fender-bender today and I have to tell you - I hated it! I was pulling out and then correcting, she though I was letting her go, I wasn't, crash, boom, bang. Sigh. The worst part was that she was such a nice girl and I'm sure her day is now ruined too. We shall see what insurance decides but not exactly the happiest moment before going to a baby shower. Mostly my ego is bruised. I consider myself to be a good driver, if not a little too speedy at times. But I'm defensive and generally careful. Now that I've been to the police station twice, to my father's and now home, I'm jumping into a nice bubble bath.

Rose Moca alphas, American Crafts paper and ribbon, Hambly transparency and sticker and random patterned paper from Costco purchased approximately 1 million years ago.

Our 1st Anniversary

Thursday was our first anniversary. It was delightful to just do nothing together for the whole day, exchange gifts and go for a casual dinner at OJs (Original Joes). Just our style (you may remember that Original Joe's is where we had our engagement photos taken). David got me a beautiful, thoughful card that made me cry, flowers, two novels and some stickers for school; this being our "paper" anniversary. Delightful. I made him a card and bought him an antique, a cookbook from 1871: "Mrs. Porter's New Southern Cookery". He loves to read cookbooks and loves "old" things. It was too good to be true! Some images from our cozy day...

 

March Showers...Bring New Cards!

I had a simply loverly evening with my sister-in-law. A glass of wine, the most delicious Papa Murphy's pizza (chicken, bacon and artichoke = yum) and the unquenched desire to "whack a stack". I packed up most of my scrapbooking room minus all of the tools/machines and we worked with what we had. I do know if I've mentioned this (you've probably noticed) that I have not bought anything new and have been using very old product. I have so much of it and most of it is still so nice! I'm trying to work a little greener. I've challenged myself to make 20 pages with only products that I have in my house. I'm loving the challenge so far. (My wallet thinks it's great too!) Jen came up with a new "technique" and was totally showing off... in a great way. I'll see if I can steal some pictures from her and post them later.

I'm off to a baby shower just now. Here is the card that I made for the latest edition to David's cousin's family. (Old Sassafrass stickers/chipboard and old Basic Grey paper)

Cookie-Cutter Cuteness

Recently, my dearest K2 invited me over to "whack-a-stack". Slightly frightened but oddly curious I accepted. I arrived at her house at 6:30 and was not done "whacking my stack" until 10:30. But I wasn't alone! Wonderful company, easy instructions and cooki-cutter cards were just what I needed for a nice evening out. Generally speaking, I'm the kind of crafter who just slaps stuff together and hopes for the best, complains when it doesn't work, takes it all apart and tries again (see second picture). It was nice to have limited options and work within a framework, rather than creating my own. I think I need to use sketches more for this reason alone. I wasn't going to post them because they were not completely, originally mine but then I thought: "I should post just to post". I find I am at a point in my life where I am just doing things to prove I'm still breathing...

Two interesting things I noticed (or re-noticed) during this class:

1) I like to jam everything into one corner. This makes card makers uncomfortable. They like to fill the whole card and kept telling me the card needed "something on the other side". Fooey! Just mash it all together I say!

2) I like to play off of a theme. Our teacher REALLY liked the embossed butterfly die and we used it on so many cards that I just started putting them on every card for the heck of it. I even used one for the flame of my candle. Nonsensical? Always!

Christmas Cheer and Christmas Fear

Hello Friends! I simply must apologize for my previous post. You see, I said that if you didn't get an invite to our Halloween party it was because we didn't like you or something similar and equally neglectful of other peoples feelings. This rash comment did have reasoning behind it - just not very good reasoning... I was unable to send my rather adorable (if I do say so myself) in the mail and thus ended up handed out some in person, calling people, fb-ing people and just generally hoping everyone knew they were invited. This was not true in all circumstances however and I felt like a big ol' rotten apple shortly after all hallow's eve. I'm so so sorry to anyone who did not come because they thought they were not invited. Everyone's invited! It's my favorite holiday. We jammed approximately 40 people into our small home and the party was a blast. Mine and Jill's costumes were hilarious (all thanks to her). That is, to those who knew who we were. Because I have students that read the blog I will not post my whole outfit. For any of you who still watch music videos, you may be able to decifer who I am.

On to Christmas! I made cards again! What's up with that? Got me. They are simple and that's why I like them I guess. (GAWD I love Sassafrass!) I'm still no Nadine :)

All of my shopping is done and wrapped (Lisa - I know this would horrify you and I will most likely blog about this later). We are getting a new couch to put in the basement so our guests are more comfortable when they are forced to watch me play "Just Dance" on the Wii ;) My new Dyson vacuum is a Godsend. So what, you ask, is the "Christmas Fear" about? My newest contract. Currently I have 6 classes to teach in 4 different subjects, 2 of which I have not taught before. Now this could be much, much worse but the thought of being responsible for 200 plus students, calling home, homework checks, keeping myself sane... I cannot sleep. I know I can do it, I just also know what it will cost. Such is the life I have chosen for myself. Enough complaining - I'm happy to be blogging again and will hopefully be back soon!

Cards, Cards and More Cards!

As promised, here are my cards for the upcoming "Kids Camp" at TM. I think I have mentioned before that I do not normally make cards. However, this class as required me to do many things outside of just scrapbooking than I would normally do, and so, I give you CARDS! I actually really like doing cards now. They require fewer supplies, they do not take as much time and you can give them to people. I mean I simply lurve having my memories captured in the unique art form we all know and love, but who doesn't like to hear the reaction: "you made this?"? Nobody. That's who. Also, I decided to incorporate a little more of myself in this blog by setting the cards on my most prized possessions: my books! I heart reading. My parents used to give us one dollar for every novel we read during the summer. I would make big bucks! I'd climb into our treehouse and read for hours - not for the money, that was just a bonus - but because I loved reading. So I'll point out a few of my favorite reads from the pictures where possible. I would love any author/book suggestions that you may have for me! Anybody out there?
The "Book of Negroes" (the small face in the upper left-hand portion) by Lawrence Hill is the best book I have read in a long time. Powerful, yet and easy read, I couldn't get enough. Interesting point, the book is only called this in Canada but is based on an actual historical artefact.
Tucked in behind this card is one of my favorite books of all time: "Kit's Law" by Donna Morrissey. This is the only book I cried after reading. It's heartbreaking, heart-warming and just downright touching.
Harry Potter - yes its true! Can't deny these fantasy favorites.Wally Lamb's "I Know This Much is True". He creates such real characters. Heart.
Anne-Marie MacDonald's "Fall on Your Knees" Compelling, disturbing, still fantastic.
For those of you "real readers" out there, Diana Gabaldon might be considered smut but I want to marry every male character in her books. Dreamy.
"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" (Mark Haddon). Need I say more than the title. I think not.

My First Cards.... ever!

The Treasured Memories team just had a fabulous crafting Christmas party. I know all staff present will enjoy that I am doing just as I said I would - I am posting the two things that I made during that time. Pfff! I am not into cards but Jilly needed me to help her make some for James' family in Ontario, so I "gave 'em a whirl"*.

*Note: Someone has been watching way too much Home Alone...