Open House

Hot off the press! The new Summer Mini

Don't miss my Open House... this Tuesday night from 7:00 - 9:00 pm at my house.

Make & Takes
Door Prizes
Snacks! (always important :)
See the new products, and more...

Be part of the fun this Tuesday night!

Email me for directions... stampinsars (AT) hotmail.com

Deals Deals Deals

Do you love a good deal?! How about a great sale? Well, check out the Clearance Rack on my Stampin' Up! website and you can save up to 60% when you shop online for select items. Buttons, Rub-ons, Designer Paper, Ribbon and more... Only while supplies last!

SHOP NOW!!!

Arrrr... Shiver Me Timbers!

Last night, Todd's school put on a play called "Pirates!" It was awesome. I say "Todd's School" because even though Scott goes to the same school, his grade was not involved. The school does a play every year, but the participates alternate between grades k, 4 & 5 one year for a Spring Musical, then grades 1,2,3 the following year for a Christmas musical. Next year, the boys will both be in the musical together.

The stage curtain was the Jolly Roger before the show started.


The kindergarten kids were the Queen's parrots, and they were very darling! I helped make the parrot hats. The eyes are even made with my SU! circle punches!! All 120 of them :)

I love all the colour on the stage!


The kindergarten kids stole the show... no question! Here they are doing the bird dance. It made for a LOT of colour flashing around on the stage. The Queen in the play had quite an air about her and she said, "Start the music, it relaxes me... dance parrots, dance!" Then they got up and did this. It was totally adorable! Of course, it helped that one of the little parrots on stage was my own little boy :) He did so well... I think he quite enjoyed his time on the stage - perhaps there's a little of me in him!!

Todd is in the green :)

Bridal Falls

Last Sunday, we went on a little hike up to Bridal Veil Falls, BC. It is less than a 15 minute hike up the hill from the parking lot... but the kids had a great time playing in the water when we reached the top. I found there to be too many people for my hiking liking, so I will aim to find somewhere less crowded for us to take the family next week. The weather was absolutely perfect, which is why there were so many people, plus the Falls are beautiful, so it draws the tourists and locals alike!

Here are some of our photos... Thanks for looking!














Elise sitting on the hollow log that we all had to take a turn posing with.

The Life of a Tulip

Yesterday, as I was getting ready to head back to church in the afternoon for a meeting, I spotted my beautiful tulips in front of my house. I planted these bulbs a few years ago, and never bothered to dig them up like I think you're supposed to. Since they come back so faithfully every year, I figure, why mess with this kind of beauty?! So, my bulbs stay put in the ground.

Anyway, I grabbed my camera for a few pics, and I am so glad I did... because later in the afternoon, the kids were outside playing, and the doorbell started ringing. I went to the door and there was Scott with a gift. My sweet little boy had picked me a batch of tulips. Very nice, only they were from my front yard and I had hoped they would stay in the front yard. He said, "Mom, I thought we should have these in the house where you could see them and enjoy them more!"

Now, how can you get upset with that? I don't even do anything to take care of these flowers, so why not have them inside where we can all enjoy them?! Bless his heart!

Colour Renovation Update...

Happy Friday, Everyone! I am so looking forward to a weekend. Steve will be away tomorrow, so there won't be any Family hikes... I will be stranded at home without a vehicle. So it might be a good day for a walk to the park. Whatever I do with the kids, I hope this gorgeous weather sticks around so we can be outside!

Colours... I shared with you a couple posts ago about our Colour Renos that are on the way to the Stampin' Up! Colour wheel. Here is a link to the new list of colours. Not only will there be some great new "core colour" additions, the colour families have been juggled around to create a better flow of colours. Each family has 10 colours. In addition to the 40 colours you see on this link, there will be 5 new In Colours each year, which will last for 2 years.

I would love to hear what you think of these renos! I am excited about the change!


Here's the link if you would like to be able to make it bigger... THE NEW COLOUR COLLECTIONS

Our Other Business

I just wanted to take a minute to share our other venture with you. My husband, Steve, and I are Independent Wellness Consultants with a company called Nikken. This company has a great and long history. Nikken was started in Japan in 1975 and is Japan's fastest growing company, even after all these years.

Nikken is a research and development company, but it's also a people company. Based on the philosophy of "The 5 Pillars of Health," Nikken promotes a balanced life in every area. There is a stamp set in my collection that says, "We only live once, but if we do it right... once is enough!" I agree! And with Nikken, we are providing a healthy life for our family.

The 5 Pillars of Health are:

* Healthy Body
* Healthy Mind
* Healthy Family
* Healthy Society
* Healthy Finances

If you have all the money in the world, but you are not in good health, or you don't have the time to enjoy your resources, then what good is it? Likewise, if you are so helpful to society and volunteering all the time, but you are running yourself ragged to the point of ill-health, then what good is all your time spent helping society when you are practically killing yourself?

Nikken promotes balance.

Steve and I have just created a Facebook site that gives information on what we do, as well as video clips and discussions on what Nikken is all about. I'd love for you to check it out, and I invite you to become a member of our Facebook group. Nikken is the Global leader in Wellness. This company is sharing its wonderful products in 38 countries around the world.

To see our Facebook site, please visit this link: Live Well With Nikken

If you are interested in more information, we are doing an Introduction evening at our house this Friday evening at 7pm. Please contact me for directions.

Steve was first introduced to Nikken after spending 5 years in severe chronic pain from a car accident 21 years ago. You can find his story right here.

Upcoming Class...

I am happy to announce a Stamp-a-stack class that I will be giving on Monday, April 19th.

The class will be from 7 - 9:30pm at my house.

For more information... please check out my website right here!

Facebook

I just started a Facebook site for my stamping.... Check it out HERE!

Weekend Walks...

We had a fun Family filled weekend.

I'll start my recap on Friday... Before Todd had to get ready for school on Friday, we went out for a run. It was supposed to be a good gauge for how well we would do on the 5km Run For Water because it was 5.5 km and I knew we wouldn't run the whole thing. Well, we got about halfway through, and Todd just about sat down and gave up. I said, "what's going on? Don't give up on me!!" He said his feet hurt, and then I looked and he had last year's shoes on. No kidding his feet hurt, they were way too small! Don't know how he got out the door with those on, but we made it another kilometre, and then I had to carry him for about the last km. But we made it home!

After school, we packed up the kids and headed out to Walmart for new shoes for all the kids. Todd will have happy feet on our next run! It was Subway for dinner, then home to put some tired kiddos to bed!

Saturday... such a gorgeous day - I said we weren't going to sit around the house, let's hit some trails. So we went to Aldergrove Lake park for a couple hours and then the kids picked Red Robins for dinner. I had the apple chicken salad, and let me tell ya, that is a keeper! I will have that one again for sure!

Here are some Saturday pics...





Today, we went to church in the morning, then Steve made pizza for lunch. After lunch we hit the trails again... this time we started at Hogan Family park where we have been for family photos before. See this post from 2008.



Then we headed over to Douglas Taylor Park for another hour or so of walking and exploring. Todd got pretty scratched up when he and Scott went running through some tall grass and he challenged some blackberry prickles. But he'll bounce back. No major blood... just a bunch of scratches!

Todd's mission of the day was to see how many sticks he could debark!




Such gorgeous weather this weekend... I'm so glad we got a chance to get out and enjoy it!

Colour Renovation!

Stampin' Up! has just announced a HUGE renovation to their colour collections. This will all take place in time for the new Idea Book and Catalogue in July. There will be 5 fabulous new "In Colors" and the return of 10 of our old favourites from past In Colors. Plus, SU! is introducing a handful of brand new core colours, too.

But, in order to make room for these great new additions, we must say farewell to some current colours. Take a look at these colours and make sure to stock up on paper, ink, reinkers, and embellishments in any of the colours you know you will use over and over again!

My website is open 24/7... click HERE.

We will be saying goodbye to the following colours:

BOLD BRIGHTS
Pink Passion
Pixie Pink
Only Orange
Orchid Opulence
Lovely Lilac
Brilliant Blue
Glorious Green
Green Galore
Gable Green
Yoyo Yellow

SOFT SUBTLES
Pale Plum
Lavender Lace
Almost Amethyst
Sage Shadow
Mellow Moss
Apricot Appeal
Barely Banana
Blush Blossom

RICH REGALS
Bordering Blue
Brocade Blue
Ballet Blue
Taken with Teal
Handsome Hunter


EARTH ELEMENTS
Ruby Red
Really Rust
Cameo Coral
Creamy Caramel
Close to Cocoa
Summer Sun

NEUTRALS
Going Gray

2 New Pages

Last night, I stayed up far too late working on a couple scrapbook pages. It's not that they were so hard that they took a long time, it's just that I started them around 11pm :) While I scrapped, I watched "Sister Act." Love that movie. Might have to do a couple more pages tonight so I can watch "Sister Act 2" - both of them are great, and the music in there is what I would love to hear in church all the time!

The first pages I did were for Todd's book. I've had these black and white pictures kicking around (ok, they were filed, but they are already a few years old!) for almost 3 years. They were taken back in July 2007 when Todd was only 3 years old. After I finished these pages, I pulled up some videos of him at that age and my heart just melted - he has always been such a tenderheart!

I used the Accents and Elements: Flower Fusion, as well as the Pretties Kit on this page.

Then I came across this scrappin' kit in my stash, and thought it would be great to use on Elise's swimming lesson pictures from last Summer. The kit is called "Sunny Day." See full kit HERE.

The little birdie's eye is made with a Circle Ice Rhinestone.