Paper Storage

I am such a lucky girl to have a dad so talented in woodwork. Look what he gave me for Christmas!! 8 1/2 X 11 paper storage. I LOVE them! My handy hubby put them up on the wall for me this week, and I quickly filled them up with all the great colours from Stampin' Up! Sure makes it easy to just glance up and see what colours I am running short on, too!

Elise's bedroom mural

When Elise was born 3 1/2 years ago, my friend Tricia did this awesome sketch and had it attached to the gift bag. I have kept it on the side of the fridge for over 3 years with the idea that I would paint it on Elise's wall.

I finally got around to that... last night I projected it on the wall and traced it, then today I painted it all in.

Steve was in awe of my paint palette (or maybe it was shock!) so he had to take a picture it because it was such a mess.

I finished it this afternoon, and I love how it turned out!

Elise loves it, too!

It's quite big, but really makes the room cheerful...

New Year... New Deals!

It is a very exciting time at Stampin' Up!... Sale-A-Bration! This always means great new sets and a gift with purchase. Check out the fabulous sets and projects right here in the Sale-A-Bration flyer.

CLICK HERE FOR FLYER

And not only is it Sale-a-bration, there is a new mini catalogue filled with treasures! The Occasions Mini has new paper, new punches, and of course fabulous new stamp sets. But to top it off, you now have a choice - traditional wood-mount sets, OR, the brand new clear-mount sets. Note: the clear-mount stamps are still made with Stampin' Up!'s high quality red rubber, but they can be repositioned on clear blocks, and they are a huge space-saver!

OCCASIONS MINI

Stampin' Up! has also expanded their offering of Home Decor items. Click on the link below for the latest in decor accents, stencils and vinyl artwork.

DECOR ELEMENTS

Some pics to share...

I have been away from my blog for a couple weeks now, and I just wanted to share a few highlights of what we did for Christmas.

For Christmas this year, we drove 2 days each way to see my sister and her family on the Canadian Prairies. We experienced extreme cold, but also some of the most gorgeous blue skies and sunshine. The kids played outside a couple times, but my westcoast kids couldn't stand the cold the same as their prairie cousins!

Scott and Jackson:

Ethan... I think he was hoping for a suntan! It was almost bright enough on this particular day!

Elise with her "Little Buddy" Liam... but Liam is 14 months older than her, so really, she's the "little" one!! She just happens to be the bossy one, too :)


The drive was fine on the way there, just a couple icy patches, and one short stretch of freezing rain. But on the way home, it was pretty much perfect. We had no ice or snow anywhere on the way home. There was half an hour where it actually snowed, but it didn't stick. That is pretty amazing when you think of what the weather could be like on a 3 province drive at this time of year. We count our blessings!

The drive there...
The drive home... (my parents' truck was in a lot of my pictures from this trip, because for the most part they were right in front of us!)

Christmas Day dinner:
Steve was pretty popular when he volunteered to play Wii games with all the little boys!

My brother gave all his nephews and his niece new jammies that they got to open on Christmas Eve and keep on while we opened stockings the next morning.

While we were there, the girls (my mom took the pic) slipped out for a little quiet time! No kids, no men, just our XL coffees and a little peace in the local coffee shop!

Steve and I also celebrated our 8th anniversary on this trip... not the most romantic anniversary of the last 8 years, but still, a very memorable one!

Wishing you all a blessed and Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

We just returned from a week away at my sisters in Saskatchewan... brrrrrr.... but very fun to spend Christmas with my whole family! We were blessed with great weather for driving and we created many happy memories.

I wish you all a Happy and Blessed New Year and I'll be back with more posts in 2010!

Bag Lady...

I made another bag! This one is for one of my son's teachers for part of her Christmas gift. She loves purple, so hopefully she will like this bag. I will know by the end of the week!!

A few pages to share....

I have had a series of scrapbook classes this fall, and I know I haven't shown all the pages from those classes.

Fall Glory... Here are the October pages we did. The title is made with my Simple Letters set of dies for my Big Shot. The film strip technique is created using the Spiral punch.



Here is one that I showed in a workshop in November, and also did it with my Beyond the Basics club. The ornaments are created with the Vintage Ornament stencils from the Decor Elements brochure.


And finally, the pages we made in my December scrapbooking class. Try flipping one page or the other in a layout to create a completely new look for your next layout. This was not the original plan that I had in mind when I came up with this page, but before I added my title I kept flipping the pages until I was happy with the way it looked. I plan to put a few photos from our family Christmas party last Saturday (see previous post) on these pages. Handy to have a few already made up and then I can just add photos!!

Family Christmas #1...

The first of many family gatherings for the seaons has happened. We hosted Steve's family here on Saturday for our Family dinner. Steve made a ham and together we put together a big variety of food choices.

Our before company energy!!!

A Scandinavian heart with a marzipan pig inside... the prize for finding the almond in the pudding (traditionally it is a rice pudding, but since that's not a big hit with people, we chose to go with chocolate pudding)

We went with a rustic theme... brown paper on the tables for tablecloths, along with crayons so everyone could colour while they were waiting.



Steve reading the Christmas story from the Bible...

Our crazy little Santa girl!

Steve's parents gave us money and we put it towards Rock Band! Even his mom got in on the drumming action :)

12 Days of Christmas....

Don't miss out on this great ONLINE sale! Big Shot dies and supplies on sale now... Check out my website now...

SHOP NOW!!!

Family Time

Last weekend, we took a quick trip over to see my parents... here are a few pics from that weekend.

It was wet, but that didn't stop the kids from exploring in the back 40! (well, the back 7 :)

Todd was really excited about playing checkers with my dad... I don't think he won anything, but it was still fun to play with Papa!

Fox and Geese
My parents have a wonderful student staying with them right now from Brazil. Elise LOVES her!!!
My Granny is not able to hear anymore, so we write our part of the conversation on a white board for her. Then she answers back. The kids love drawing her pictures on the white board... she seems to get a kick out of that, too!


E found my old harmonica and played it all weekend!! Beautiful!!! (haha!)

Like a true west coaster.... shorts and a rain jacket. Turns out the boys repacked their clothes after I had inspected the piles, and Todd got away without a single pair of pants! Oh well, he really didn't seem to mind!

One More Class....

There is just one more class on my calendar before Christmas...

Want to get a head start on your Christmas scrapbooking? Come and create a double 12X12 layout that is just right for the season! Cost is only $10!! This class will take place at my house on Thursday, December 10th at 7pm.

Please RSVP to save your spot.

November SALE!!!

Check out my website for some GREAT deals... savings up to 50% off, and the convenience of shopping from your own home... 24/7!!

Class Helper!

This past week I got to be the class helper in Scott's class... in gr. 1 it means that you get to do teacher jobs, not so much play with the kids and do the same activities as them. But I got to practice sight words with a bunch of different kids individually, and then I got to do some stapling for the teacher and then some other little jobs. It was great to see Scott interact with his friends in class, and also put up his hand a lot to answer questions.