Fun with Felt Flowers

These felt flowers are retired, but you can get a similar look with some of the current Stampin' Up! products, or maybe you have some of the old flowers on hand, still. They add a nice touch to a simple card.

A Happy Little Bird

Norway Bound...

Today, (right as this posts, actually, because I have it scheduled) I am flying with my mom to Norway. Am I excited? Oh, yes! Just a little!! Actually, WAY more than just a little. I have waited a long time for this. My mom was born in Norway, and she moved to Canada with her family when she was a young girl. I am looking forward to meeting my uncle for the very first time, as well as seeing many other special people.

Thanks to my awesome husband who encouraged me to go! Thanks for staying with the kids so I could have this special time with my mom. I will miss you all very much, hope you have lots of fun without me! See you in three weeks!

I made a travel journal for my mom... hope she likes it. I had a lot of fun making it.

The front is just covered in patterned paper, then I made a little collage of travel papers and newsprint paper, as well as some rub-ons. Plus, I made 2 little Norwegian flags to glue on.

On the coils I attached little travel charms I found at a LSS.


It has lined paper on the inside - perfect for my mama who loves to journal every single day!


I will be back on the 17th of August. I have some other posts scheduled between now and then, but my trip pics will have to wait until then. I doubt I will be able to make posts while I'm overseas. Hope you are all having an awesome summer - thanks for stopping by :)

Fun with my Camera

Yesterday, we picked up some dinner and went to the school playground and let the kids play for a bit. I took out my camera and had some fun taking shots around the playground. There are a couple flower/planter beds close to the playground and there were some gorgeous lilies growing there.




There is also a cool feature on this camera that automatically focuses on the main item in the middle of the picture and blurs the rest. I had fun with that, too.

OPEN HOUSE

You are invited to my
Stampin' Up! Open House....

Wednesday, August 24th from 7 - 9:30pm.

Bring a friend.
Come make a card or 2.
Browse the new catalogue.
Peruse my retired merchandise and pick up a great deal!
It'll be a great time of stamping and fun...
Hope to see you then.

Please RSVP so I know how many are coming.
Let me know if you need directions.

Thoughts and Prayers for Norway

It was with shock and horror that I followed the news stories that came out of Norway yesterday. So many innocent people killed. The hatred of one man affecting the entire nation, the entire world. This is a small nation known for peace and an easy going nature. I love this country, and I haven't even been there... yet.

I remember a report I did in Elementary school. I felt such a strong connection to the country where my mom had been born. I traced the map of the country shaped like a spoon, and talked about fish and potatoes.

May God bless Norway as this country rebuilds a peaceful atmosphere. It will take love, not retaliation, hatred or fear. The following is a borrowed status from my cousin's facebook page:

A young AUF member, in an interview on CNN was asked if
they now wanted to fight terror.
Her response was:
"If one man can show this much hate,
think how much love we can show together."

1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear,
because fear involves punishment,
and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

As my mom and I head to Norway next week, I am sure it will be a somber mood that greets us. But they will not be defeated by this. They will rise strong. The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. God is in control. Norway is known for it's peacemaking and the Bible says, "Blessed are the peacemakers."

This is what a five-year-old looks like!!

FIVE

Five years seems like a long time. But it's not. Not when you see time racing away from you in the form of a little girl growing up far too quickly. Right before our eyes, and in the blink of an eye. One day she was born, and the next day she is five years old. How does that happen?


She is one of a kind, precious and beautiful. She loves Jesus. She speaks her mind and she loves to snuggle. She is a determined little girl, who, at barely 2 years old decided she was done with pull ups and said, "I'm not wearing those anymore." In a day she was potty trained - she does most things with that same determination. Like the day she wanted to ride a bike - she just got on the bike and did it.


You'll go places, kid, because you are fearless, and you march to the beat of your own drum (or harmonica!) and you don't make decisions based on what others think of you. I like that about you. Don't ever change!

See this outfit? She picked it herself... and it totally works for her!


She is also kindhearted and sweet. But if you ever tell her that, she might just make a pirate face and say, "ARRRR!!" so, maybe keep that to yourself! But her heart shows through to her friends and when she is around little animals.



We can dress her up, but.... you know the rest! Even under fancy clothes, she will always be herself, just waiting to get home to change into something that better shows her personality.


She loves the colour blue.




In just a few short weeks, we get to share her with the school community... bitter-sweet, for sure. It means she's growing up too fast, but it also means she gets to explore her world and grow more into the person God created her to be.

Elise May, we love you and cherish you. Happy Birthday sweetheart!

Summertime

Whether the weather is telling us it's summertime, or not, the time off and laid back pace of each day clearly says "Summer!"

Earlier this week, my sister and her family came for a visit. We had so much fun together, but the time went too quickly. We managed to pack in quite a bit to our few days together. Waterpark, Elise's b-day party, adventures on the skytrain and a visit to Science World. In between all that were Popsicles, bouncing on the tramp, movies, coffee (lots of coffee!) and shared meals. Thanks for a great visit, Louise and Miles. So great to see your growing family.

Here are a few pics from the week.

My sister is the best at braiding hair... she did E's hair up really cute, right off the bat when they arrived. Louise has 4 boys, so she wowed her husband with her skills - he hadn't ever seen what Louise could do with long hair!!


Liam and Elise - best buds!


The 3 boys that are the same (within 11 months) age.


A sister is a forever friend.


The whole crew at the waterpark - enjoying pizza and cupcakes for Elise's 5th birthday.


On our way into the big city (Vancouver :) for a day at Science World.



We made it there, and back - no problem!! This pic below is of our way home, and we let 3 trains go by before we decided to split up and squish on. The trains were packed.... but it was afternoon rush hour. This was after a few stops and many people had already gotten off. Before this pic, I couldn't even see Louise's family - just knew they were on the same train because Cole was talking to everyone!! We all made home safe and sound!


All the kids posing for Grammie on the play fort!


Come back soon!!

Victoria with Scott

School's Out For Summer!!!

This is a bitter-sweet time for us... It's Elise's last summer before she starts school full time. The boys approach summer totally differently from each other. Todd is an easy-going kid, so he just goes with the flow, but he was ready for summer to start so he could have a break from school work. Scott, on the other hand, started missing school before school was even over. He just starts thinking about 2 long months without seeing his friends every day and his structured school work, and he gets melancholy. I know that's hard for some people to grasp, but that's my boy!!!

I decided to break up the week for him by taking him to Victoria for a few days to spend some time just with me, and with my parents. We got together with some of my cousins, and a few friends, too, but mainly we just hung out at home with the berries and the chickens!!

Remember my old Canon that I talked about in my last post? Well, I let him use it for the week. He LOVED it! I have to load his pics still, but from what I could see, he did a great job!

Here are a few pics from our little getaway. We were gone for 3 nights.

On the ferry:



Taking pictures of everything... He wrote in his journal while we were gone and I plan to print some of the pics he took and let him add those beside the pictures he drew. His journal entries were adorable, but I'll save those for another post.



What a treat! We saw whales on our way over. The captain made an announcement that whales would come into view in the next couple minutes and we made it out to the right deck in time to get a couple shots. They were quite far away, so I zoomed in as far as I could, then cropped, so it's a bit blurry, but you can see what it is. This is with my new camera, and it's a thousand times better than what I would have captured at that distance with my old one.


My dad got chickens... Scott spent a lot of time in the chicken coop this week, and made some new friends, as well!



We went to the beach twice while in Victoria. The first time it was beautiful and sunny, the second time, cold and windy! Here's Scott and Island View Beach enjoying the water and sand.


One of the things Victoria is famous for... Fisgard Lighthouse. I spent an afternoon with my cousins at Esquimalt Lagoon and took this from where we were sitting across the water from the lighthouse. One of these days, I'd like to take the kids to Fort Rodd Hill and do a proper tour of the grounds with them, not just showing them the lighthouse from the distance!


It was a great mini-vacation, and Scott had a wonderful time - that was the whole point! Thanks, mom and dad, for letting us just come and hang out for a few days. (with almost no notice!!)