Honest Scrap Award

Alright, Jenn sent this onto me quite a loooooong time ago, so I've got to think up of 10 truths about myself. She's probably figured by now that I've forgotten but I haven't....just struggling with thinking up truths worth sharing! Should be easy enough...right? Maybe not.



1. I made my parents read Dr. Seuss' One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish so many times when I was a child that to this day I can still recite a good chunk of the book with little to no prompting.


2. I looooooooove coffee. Just coffee, black, no added flavourings, no fancy names....just coffee flavoured coffee.


3. I enjoy cooking, but am completely hopeless at baking. I think it's because you can wing it with cooking far more successfully than with baking and I so enjoy winging it!


4. I live in my own time zone. It is a very well known fact amonst family and friends. The clock tics ever so much slower there; sometimes it even stops for a while.


5. Even though I gave it up as a profession, I'm glad I finally went through the schooling and became an esthetician.


6. I am having a really hard time thinking of stuff for this list.


7. I could count on one hand the number of days I've been pet-less in my life and I plan on keeping it that way for as long as I'm able.


8. I am easily distracted by dogs. They're a bit of a preoccupation for me.

9. I do not like the heat.

10. I am happy to finally have this list done.

I'd send this off to other bloggers, as per the instructions....but I think everyone has already gotten this one. If you're a follower and you haven't done this one yet, please, give it a try!

4 Things I've Repurposed for Scrapbooking.

My friend Lisa is hosting a circle journal that I'm quite excited to be participating in. We were to pick a list-style topic, using any number between 3 and 10. My topic is 4 Things I've Re-Purposed for Scrapbooking.
Below I've posted an instructions page for my fellow participants . I hope it's legible after you click on it. Since I've requested it of everyone else, I've added some re-purposed items on this page. The paper in the top left corner with the pretty design on it is a subscription request postcard for Canadian Scrapbooker; and the sticker in the bottom left corner is a tag from an old gymnastics outfit of my daughter's which I've altered with some ink. I'm also posting my sign in tag, made from a fabric clothing tag (complete with it's safety pin and string) which I applied Maya Mist to. My name is done with an old school labeller (okay, not really a re-purposed item anymore, I know), city, province, country from a card mailed to me, along with the postage (does anyone recognize their handwriting?). To top it off, are some shell beads threaded through the safety pin.

And there you have it, a good, healthy start to my cj. Please be sure to keep an eye out for my layout, which I hope to create and post within the next few days.

Tranquil Moments in the Snow.

Yesterday morning, the world was a brighter shade of white, thanks to a light dusting of snow the night before. My mom and I took full advantage by going for a drive through the countryside and playing with our cameras. This is a new hobby of mom's, who recently acquired a drool-worthy DSLR camera with an equally enviable mega-zoom lens.
These are not her pictures. They are the ones I took with my handy-dandy, does-the-job point and shoot Olympus. I got her to stop for these trees: I would have preferred this shot without the hydro pole; even Mennonite country is not without modern conveniences:

It's all about depth here:

It's so wonderful to be able to share this passion with my mom, who has also taken an interest in digital scrapbooking. She's quite talented (and equally addicted!) and I'm sure will have a page or two to share with me from this day on our next visit.

Can't wait to see what I can do with these pics, all the others from yesterday and the ones from road trips I see coming in the not-so-distant future!

Mind What Your Mama Told You.

My mom always told me the last thing to go on the tree and the first thing to come off is always, always, always the angel. I never gave this much thought, just figured this was some superstition of my grandmother's that had gotten passed down, though I always followed this rule of Christmas decorating quite emphatically each and every year.
Well, this year I forgot and as I was pulling ornaments off the tree yesterday (yes, nearly a month after Christmas) I saw that superstition or not, there was also a perfectly logical reason for this tradition of sorts. Being that the angel is on the top of the tree, any jiggling of the tree, even in the slightest, causes the topper to sway dangerously back and forth.
Lesson learned. And now, when Scott asks, "And why do we have to do it this way again?" I have a perfectly logical explanation to go along with my usual, "Because mom said!"

PDQ

That is the name of the paper line I used on this layout of our trip to the fall fair. The paper is pre-designed and ready for the addition of your
pictures, journaling and title. To add some more umph, personality and texture to the layout, I stamped, distressed and embossed some more stars, outlined the Cricut-made title in white, framed one photo with black marker and another with distressed Coredinations cardstock, which then got pop-dotted.
And that's all it took for me to get this layout done.....Pretty Darn Quick!

Gone Nutty

Want to get your kids to sit very still and quiet? Give them a nut and the opportunity to feed a cute little critter!
Okay, so normally I think of squirrels as vermin and have a natural suspicion of any wild animal. But this little guy, affectionately known in this Northern Ontario camp as Red was quite entertaining; from cautiously plucking peanuts from the kids' grasp to running right over our dopey dog Bella's nose to his angry chattering at anyone who invaded his territory.
Anyways, when you're vacationing in bear country, a cute little vermin is a far more welcome wildlife visitor!

Tidbits of a Favourite Layout.

I fell in love with a picture I'd taken of my daughter and two of her friends while we were downtown for the local Santa Claus Parade. The pose the girls struck was sweet and fun, while the colours from the cement stones, pavement, the girls' clothing and overcast day gave an edginess to the photo....so very downtown.
Well, the photo just happened to work perfectly with some paper I'd bought for an anniversary layout that never happened. The greys, blacks and reds along with the patterns and distressing was just a beautiful match.
To avoid getting permission from the other girls' parents, I am only going to show elements of the layout, not the layout as a whole. Little tidbits that I love almost as much as the photo itself...the pieces that bring everything together....the sweet with the edgy.
First shot shows two hearts I made with my new Cricut cartridge, Ashlyn's Alphabet, emphasized with 3 embossed brads (the embossing has started to rub off, but the effect is nice...I think I'll try sealing it though to avoid further damage). Below the hearts is the top right corner of the photo, along with a freehand border done with marker and a paper piercer (used to scratch the inner line into the Coredinations cardstock).

This second shot shows a chipboard circle and fancy brad securing a transparency tag that was actually from a sweater I received for Christmas. Oh how I love to be able to re-purpose for my craft!

Lastly, there's this shot of the left side of the layout. This swirl was also made from my Ashlyn's Alphabet cartridge, accented by 3 more embossed brads that are "self-distressing."

Please note, the red above the swirl is actually my table cloth, not part of the layout though oddly, it does look like it belongs!

This is the first layout I've done in the new year, and after a scrappy hiatus over the holidays it felt so good to release some creative energy. Thanks for allowing me to share it with you!