Mac at his Finest

Finally getting back to some crafting. I've actually been desperate to craft but I've had the craziest week at school which included supervision every lunch hour, the swim team starting up (before and after school practices, one of which included one of our students being saved by a lifeguard), staff meetings, tutorials, the list goes on and on. But, I just sat down, set the timer and got to work. I managed to "finish" this page. I'm not actually sure it's done but the timer rang out and I didn't know what else to do. I'm off to complete another timed project instead of doing school work... I just can't bring myself to get to work just yet.

You can tell that I was inspired by the post of Lisa's.

"My Favorite Aunt" Kit

Yippee! August was my month to make a kit at TM! I never used to like taking on this task but I'm really enjoying it now... maybe a little too much actually. I always have way to much stuff and seem to be going in a million different directions. I simply cannot help loving multiple patterns and colors on a page. The kit turned out to be a scrumptious combination of kitschy patterns and cozy colors, reminiscent of cabins, quilts and all things campy. With so many of the papers being double sided, there were so many options it was so hard for me to showcase all of the components of the kit. In the end I did what worked with my pictures and hoped that people would see the value of this kit on their own. I ended up with four 12x12 LOs, two 8.5x11 LOs and what I hope will be two cards (yet to be completed). Pretty sweet! I also really tried to only use what was in the kit, including only your basic tool kit. No dies, no Glimmer mist, only a little bit of ink and a couple printed sentiments. (Note: this was really more so a constraint of trying to craft at my home rather than in my crop room (still at Mom's) and not some sort of highfalutin scheme.) Here's a sneak peak of "My Favorite Aunt":

Actual LOs will be posted in the store at the beginning of the week as well as on the TM blog.

Unconditional Support

I allude to the fact that life has not been sunshine and daisies for the past year quite often. Those of you that have the pleasure of hanging out with Debbie Downer herself get more than an earful more often than you would like I'm sure. But I'm very lucky to have people in my life who have not turned their back on me. They continue to ask me to do things, even when I constantly turn them down (for reasons I will not explain at this time). They offer advice and are patient when I'm quick to defend or are hypersensitive. I have so many of these beautiful people in my life. I am eternally grateful for their friendship, I try to make sure I tell them I love them whenever I get the opportunity. And I really do love them. Not just in jest. They warm my heart and keep me strong. If I haven't told you I love you today - I do. Thank you for making my life that much brighter.

One of those wonderful people is, of course, Amanda. Love you Bear!

Kidz Kamp at TM

I'm really excited to be teaching Kidz Kamp at TM again this year. Our first crack at it went so well last year we decided to give it another go. Apparently KC is cooking up something for the winter as well... She asked if I would be okay with that. Ha! what can I say? She had me at "kids". I love 'em. And they usually think I'm alright too :) So here are a few sneak peaks of the upcoming classes but you can find more info here and here.

Learn to Nacissist...

A favourite (mostly of David’s) signature saying around our home is “learn to _________”. The blank could be filled with a verb, I guess, but is most often filled with adjectives, adverbs or nouns. For instance, if I was having trouble finding some viral video about a teenage pop star in angst or something, David might comment: “learn to Miley Cyrus”... I guess it’s just one of those things you just had to be there for...

Not sure about this page. I haven’t posted it for two reasons: (1) I feel like it needs some distressing, etc. but I’m too lazy to take it apart and put it back together (2) I feel like such a loser when all I scrapbook are the handful of pictures where I think I look decent. I am one of those girls who suffers from a complete and total body-dysmorphic-self-conscious-beat-yourself-up-‘cause-you’re-not-good-enough complex. For most of my life I have been very un-photogenic; so much so that people near and dear to me have, in a kind way, said as much themselves. Yes, part of this is because I make ridiculous faces at the camera 99% of the time. However, that just solidifies the picture as weird/funny/funny-ugly thus not allowing me to fall into the category (god forbid) of unattractive. So the narcissist in me has started to keep a folder of pics entitled “Me”; only the photos which I consider to be me at my best go in there. But wait, it gets worse. Every now and then I pull up the folder and go through the files reminding myself that I’m not half bad. Is that sick? Is it nothing? Is it just plain weird?

Well, whatever it is, it feels kind of good to share the quirky tid-bit about myself on the good ol’ interweb. Now I just hope someone has a similar tendency so I can’t sleep at night ;)

My Little Cupcakes

Having a delightful birthday weekend - more to post later. Those of you that are my friends on FB already have a glimpse of the antics.

I have much to do still tonight so just another quick post. Here is my challenge page from TM using the newest My Little Shoebox. It's super cutesy and bright and fun. I loved the colors instantly. This is certainly not my most inspired page however. I'm hoping to do some more with this great new line next weekend, redeem myself while doing justice to the line. I also added some of the new Sassafrass flowers - they are wicked awesome! - and some of my usual embroidery. I love the awkward hand writing :)

Show Love With Your Hands

So I fell short of my goal, sort of. I was trying not to buy any new product but when you are receiving the incredibly gorgeous new Crate Paper at the store with Lisa (who agrees all of it is drool worthy) well, your will power goes right out the window. And then you have to buy some Glubers and embellishments from Cosmo Cricket - they were the last pack of butterflies and doilies - I HAD to. And then you also have to buy some more flowers/dollies from Prima because you simply do not have enough! Sigh. The mania. It all added up to a delightfully (if I do say so myself) eclectic, yet matchy-matchy page. The title is care of our engagement photo photographer, the ever talented Ashley Champagne. She told us it might sound strange but "show love with your hands". It totally worked! We continually repeated this to each other during our pics in Jamaica too :)

I love this man. Tomorrow is our one year anniversary - eek! So excited!

Keepin' it Cool with the Old School

Continuing my old school scrappin (in both product and technique), here is another page from my no tools, paints, etc. evening with Jen (sista from another mista).

I really have too much school work to do before the last day of school... before spring break (worst sentence, ever). A picture says a thousand words, question mark.

More "Green" Gratitude...

Here's another layout for my gratitude book. You may recognize the oldies but goodies: American Crafts paper, Heidi Swapp stickers, Basic Grey rub-ons, Prima flowers and Chatterbox letters. I realize that the last few pages have been wedding or engagement photos but what better times to be grateful for, right?
This picture is taken on the second floor (balcony setting) of the restaurant which housed our dinner in Jamaica. We are shakin' our boo-tays... and also rubbing them together. Grateful. (Use Charlie Sheen intonation for "grateful".)

Perhaps I spoke too soon...

I really have the craftin' bug lately but I keep running into the same problem, namely, teaching. I spent many, many hours today putting together a beautiful workbook for the next unit of Physics 20. I wanted to get so many pages done but I made myself finish the entire Physics booklet. Hopefully the students will appreciate it... I'm sure they'll all thank me... Ha!

I've decided that Murphy (last post) and this new page are going to go into a gratitude book. A book that I can keep out all of the time and use to remind myself of all of the wonderful things we (David and I) have to be grateful for. Really I could just take ANY of my old pages because they are all about things that make me happy, but part of (my) gratitude is being able to take time for myself to do the things I love. Making new pages is certainly one of those things.

Thank You GETCA!

So I had a superbly wonderful time at the Greater Edmonton Teachers Convention today. I went to an awesome session hosted by Dr. Gary Anaka. Brain-based learning. Wow. I love being inspired. I really love teaching (seriously, no sarcasm, it's stupid hard but I love it) and I'm so excited to get better at it. I have so many things I want to say about teaching it almost makes me want to blog about teaching and then I remember that it's hard enough to get me to post on this blog much less another! In addition to my wonderful session I had lunch with some fantabulous teaching friends, bought an adorable skirt and got some scappin' done tonight (as I do not have classes to plan for).

I'm really trying to focus on the positive things on our life right now, starting with good ol' Murphy.

Also, you may notice all of the old product on my last couple pages. I'm trying not to buy anything new and make several pages with the truck loads of stuff I already have. I even busted out the magic mesh (inspired by one of Lisa's latest posts)!

A Gift for A Pond Jumper

Anam, a great scrapbooker and all around crafter, is back off to the UK very shortly after several rounds with Canadian customs. She will be sorely missed but really will not be far, at least not from our thoughts. The internet is a wonderful thing. Some of Anam's crafting buddies got together and made layouts for her to remember our families and with a note to say how much she's meant to us. As she has never met David (or Murphy and Onyx), I thought I would put a picture of Jill and I. I chose one of us laughing as Anam is always up for a good laugh and may even be more sarcastic than me. I do hope that dry sense of humour will translate in email and blog posts from across the pond. Here's my LO for a great gal...

Also, Juli and little Ellie (with hubby in tow) stopped by the store today. She is soooo sweet! I can't wait to get one of those adorable bundles of my own. Oh wait! I guess I could wait until I had a steady job. Nuts...

Indie Girl Pages

For my challenge kit this month at Treasured Memories, Chantel gave me some of the lovely "Indie Girl" line from Sassafras. Score! The line is so pretty - I'm not sure my pages do it justice but I enjoyed creating them. And Sassatras is such a good deal I still have lots of product to work with. In fact, I did complete another page but it's... icky.

Roller Disco Immortalized

A couple months ago Jill and I went to a birthday party at the Edmonton Sportsworld Inline Skate and Roller Disco. The theme: tight and bright. Yah. I know. Best birthday party idea....EVER!!! You know that Jill and I live for theme parties. So we hit up Walmart (Note: people of Walmart theme party soon to come) and found some special touches. Safe to say that most of our outfits came from our closets. What?! Everyone likes to cherish our childhood era; the eighties. Our friends Kelsey, Robyn and my best friend Kirsten (yep, her name is my name too, and whenever we go out...) rented the rink for the evening and had the wherewithal to purchase a liquor licence for their young (most were in their early twenties) party goers. Jill and I had approximately one drink each and it was a stellar night. I wish I could show you all of the short shorts, spandex and (apparently) mullets that come with a tight and bright party, but here are just a few pages. Pardon the bad photos, no patience.

In case you are confused, my friends lovingly gave Kirsten the name K2 to prevent confusion between me (K) and her (K2). Hence, "K2 turns 27".

I'm pretty sure that I scrap-lifted the crossed scraps of paper from Chantel. The Riff Raff Snowflakes are really hot pink and orange. I thought they looked pretty sweet and geometric until I got home and David immediately asked why there were snowflakes on this page. Sigh. "Tight & Bright"

I don't even know what this is but some ladies at the store today had some excellent insight. Something along the lines of it doesn't matter what your page looks like - a done page is ANOTHER PAGE THAT'S DONE. "Roller Girls

Artwork and Thunderstorms

Last night I hung out with Jilly. We really don't get to hang out with each other as much as I would like. She is such a bright light in my life. While we can get rather aggressive with each other at times, it is only because we are so close that such abuse can be tolerated. Even with a migraine last night we were making each other laugh; speaking in bad accents, being crude, just our usual deranged selves. And to add to all of this love and happiness, there was a thunderstorm last night. Me and thunderstorms are like peas and carrots... or maybe that was someone else... It certainly helped the pounding in my own skull to hear the relaxing sound of rain, thunder and the smell of rain, so much so that I got 3 pages done.
The first one I love, the second is old school. But what's wrong with a simple, old school page every now and again? Meh. Nothin'. As you can't read the jounaling tabs (I said old school right?) lemme'splain... I bought this adorable scratch off "coloring book" for our dear friend's daughter Bella when she was born because it was called "Princess Bella". I have been saving that book until now to ensure that she would not impale herself or lose any soft tissue to the sharp wooden tool. When I brought it over about a month ago, she was just as pumped as me. She watched her Mom color and then trotted off to her unfinished tree house to sit and work. She was soooooooo engaged and worked so hard: it was the most adorable thing I've ever seen. So I Paparazzied the moment. Happy Thursday!

"Art=WORK"


"Even Picasso had to Start SOMEwhere"
P.S. I can't wait to have my own kids so that I can stop creeping on my friend's children.

Wishing I had better handwriting...

You know, lots of people comment on my handwriting in real life. I've been proud of my printing since at least grade 1 :P However, as soon as I go to write on a page things get sketchy. If I try too hard I come up with perfect printing like my mother would do - which is lovely but not natural. It doesn't even look like I wrote it. The other option is to just "go for it". The problem with that option is that my brain is not really a "got for it" kind of gal. My brain is more like "don't screw it up, but make it natural, but don't look like your trying too hard, but try not to ruin your page..."etc. Which brings me to my latest page. I was going to cover up the unnatural writing (I may still) as it can be likened to a "silent but violent" - sneaks up on you with no warning and kills the mood. I know that many of your brave souls handwrite on your pages all the time and the whole point is to tell a story or portray a feeling but my OCD just won't let me get there yet. At least I'm keeping up with the posting and crafting. Some more ideas in the works... This is a picture of my babelicous Mom, I belive shortly after my birth. I just love her soooo much! *Note: it is not mounted on that terrible pink color, I just had that paper down when I took the pic.

In other news, Jill was asking me why you can't click on the images on my blog to enlarge them anymore. My answer: I don't know. If anyone knows how to change this, please enlighten me. Love.

Same Same but Different

Just working at TM this Saturday and I thought I'd see what was in my cubby. Lucky for me I had some old photos from old page ideas. I was so excited that I scrapbooked a page right there and then. It kinda hurts my eyes a little but I'm so in love with patterns and colors. I know Jill is probably trying to stop herself from leaving the comment "too much! too much!" but I've decided I love it. And the pictures are hilarious to boot! Kurt Cobain inspired hair AND attire - Kara, I needed you then :) I've always known that my Dad and I share similar features but not until I found these photos did I realize how similar we really are.

Dad 1966. Me 1995. We were both in grade 6.


Enjoy your Saturday!

Scrapin' at TM

So I went to keep Jill company as she was working at the store alone tonight... and that way I could also bring her dinner. (I know, I know, I wish I could be your sister too.) I completed a page in half an hour. Yep. Me. Procrastinating, whining Kirsten. Trust me. This is an accomplishment. It's not anything special to look at but it had hidden value to me. The paper was a kit from the store. I challenge that is now met. It also means that I am starting to feel a little more like my old self - coincidence that this coincides with the last day of teaching being yesterday? I THINK NOT!!! I'm excited to work at TM this summer and get into "it".

Challenged.

So Jilly challenged me to use the following things on the following page:

• two of the almost nudey potty pics (yep, yours truly)
• the color orange
• the two pink flowers
• a Riff Raff shape

I came up with this:


The second page was one that I actually whipped up in a jiff - and if you have ever seen me scrapbook - that's an accomplishment in itself. I broke one of the rules that Anam taught me a while ago. That is, I ignored the blue in the picture and now it really stands out. But I've decided that this is a random picture that I just recently found from a trip that is already scrapped and so I went with it.

Sheesh!

Friday night I made a date with my good friend Mer to scrapbook. We both had a lot we wanted to get done but as we all know, it takes me forever to complete one page. I don't think anyone over analizes to the extent that I do. Anywho, here is the ONE PAGE I managed to get done.

This is Murphy`s hiney the day after his surgery. The little spot that looks like a mole is the beginning of a long series of stitches. Murph had a femoral head osteotomy - essentially he no longer has an actually hip joint and his body is slowly rebuilding a false joint. Recently he has started to jump up onto the couch - pretty amazing!