Friday, July 23, 2010

Reading my first book!

If you know me, you know that I don't read! I only like magazines because they have pictures. I would rather go and see the movie than read the book.

At the cottage I have had some time and I brought a book along. I am on chapter 8 and I find myself trying to slip away and steal some time to read a few more pages.

I have always admired my friends that have blogs that have a little section dedicated to books they are reading or have read. I am going to start that section on my sidebar, right now!


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Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Little Red Wagon # 38

Hi everyone! I am sorry to say that this week I don't have anything prepared for this week's challenge. I am on holidays, sitting on the deck, in the sunny sunshine! I will do my best to post something at a later date!

Enjoy your week and play along. Be sure to check out what the other girlfriends created. I am sure it is spectacular!


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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

A Quick Post

Well, we had another fun filled day. I have tons of photos to upload, but I don't want to take the time to resize them. We are heading out on the boat again shortly but I did want to share Amanda's big catch last night.

I heard her shrieking from the dock all the way up at the cottage. I grabbed my camera and ran down to see what all the commotion was about. This is what I found!

Enjoy your day..........working (lol) while I am soaking up the sun and hanging with my family!


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Sunday, July 18, 2010

At the cottage.......

Hey everyone! I have internet at the cottage. I probably won't be on much, but it is raining out so I thought I would do a quick post (plus I had to add the photos we have taken so far to Facebook for the families to see).

This is our second year renting this cottage and it is as perfect as we remembered it being last year. We have 6 teenagers with us again this year, and we are really enjoying their company. Everything is an adventure and everything is funny. Here is a photo of 3 of them getting ready to go tubing. The tube is not even in the water yet and you can see that they are having a great time.

This photo received the most comments on Facebook. We bought new tow ropes for the boat and when Jay unpacked them he put one on his head. He came all the way up from the dock for me to take a picture of him!

Amanda and Jake did a little fishing this morning. Most of the cottage was still sleeping. They caught a few small sunfish, but nothing too exciting.

Today we did some tubing (actually 'double' tubing). We are not even out of our bay and you can see that David is ready for fun!

This is one of the coolest cottages we have seen. This photo really doesn't show the 'coolness' but it was all glass and the property was amazing. The cottage had parts that were built into the ground and all sorts of little sections to explore. Some people just have way too much money!

Here is an attractive photo of me with my 'boat' hair. Nice eh?

After a bunch of water fun, Monty was chilling out in the tube (btw, he is already in bed and it is only 10:44pm). He decided to do some fishing and managed to catch this......

At this point in the day, Matt and Graham had disappeared to their bunkie to chill out, Amanda and Jake were taking a nap, Monty was still floating around in the tube and Jason decided to do some snorkeling. Here he is all decked out in his gear. Only a son a mother could love!

It did start to rain around dinner (well for us that was 8pm) so the kids had to find something to do inside. They pulled out a game and spent a couple of hours shouting and making up rules as they went along.

I think that everyone is having a great time. I can't wait to see what tomorrow is going to bring. I better rest up!


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Thursday, July 15, 2010

A New Project..........

My friend Regan has been doing lots of sewing and quilting and I have been drooling over all the projects she has done. I used to sew quite a bit when my kids were small, but I haven't done much in a very long time. She invited me to take a class with her at a store she discovered in Guelph. Deanna joined us as well. When I saw the project, I just knew it would be the perfect gift for Joanne's birthday.



I was scheduled to work that Saturday but I had Amanda cover for me at the store so I could go. All I had to do was keep the secret from Joanne (not an easy thing for me to do).

I presented the gift to her on Wednesday. Her birthday is not until next week, but I will be away on holidays and Wednesday was the only day we would see each other before I leave. I was so excited for her to open it! I was also super nervous......I had to choose the fabric which was very stressful. She is really easy to please but I wanted her to love it!

Here it is........oh ya, another thing I stressed over, was how long to make the straps. These are big decisions to make for someone else!

Here is a close up of the front of the purse.

Here is the inside......it is actually reversible. I learned how to line it and create pockets.

Here is a close up of my 'very straight' stitching........impressive eh?

And this is the loop I learned how to make, along with the special button I picked out. I knew that Joanne would like it for sure! I fastened it to the purse with floss, just like we do on our scrapbook pages.

Considering Joanne has already done a post on her blog about the purse, I think she liked it. I plan on making a few more of these in the near future. It was and amazing day spent with Regan and Deanna. I was wishing that Joanne could have joined us, but then it wouldn't have been a surprise, now would it.

Happy Birthday to my dear friend. Hopefully there will be many more birthday's celebrated, many more laughs shared, and lots more memories made!


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Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Little Red Wagon #37 - Use a Tree

It is challenge time again at Little Red Wagon and this week Avril has challenged us to use a tree on our project. I decided to use a stamp set from Unity. I paper pieced it (one of my favourite things to do) and I popped it up using foam adhesive. I also had my sewing machine out so I added a bit of machine stitching to it as well.

Here is a close up of the paper piecing and the machine stitching.

The papers are from Cosmo Cricket (a little 6x6 pad). The sentiment is from a Papertrey stamp set that I have.

Be sure to check out what the DT created and play along if you can.


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Monday, July 12, 2010

Getting Ready........

for the cottage. That means laundry, grocery shopping, packing............yuck! I hate all those things. I had to take Matt to the mall today because he needed a new pair of shoes and another bathing suit.....we live in bathing suits at the cottage, you can't be running out!

Amanda decided that she needed a new pair of sandals, and while she was looking, I spotted something that I liked.





I tried them on and they were just perfect. I love them! I treated myself to these so that I could get through all the nasty chores that I have to do this week. That makes sense, right?


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Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Little Red Wagon #36 - Nestabilities

Good morning everyone! It is my turn to issue the challenge at Little Red Wagon, and I chose to use Nestabilities! I love them!

I am still on a layout kick. I created this one for Matt's album. Papers are from Echo Park (love this collection). Die-cuts are leftovers from My Little Shoebox (they worked perfectly with the colours on this layout). I cut out the pattern paper around the diamonds and placed it on a coordinating piece of orange cardstock. If you look really closely, you can see that I stamped little hearts between each diamond. Matt loves ice cream, so I thought the hearts were a perfect addition!

So, the challenge was to use Nesties.......so I used the ice cream cones. I made them using the smallest die, so that I could fit 3 of them on my page. I used my ScorPal to emboss the cones to make them look like waffle cones. I added a button to each one just for fun!

Be sure to check out the Little Red Wagon Blog to see what the other girlfriends create. You are guaranteed to be inspired!


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Tuesday, July 6, 2010

I Don't Know What To Say........and that doesn't happen very often!


A couple of weeks ago I received an email from someone that I consider a very impressive scrapbooker. Her name is Allison Davis. She was part of the Creating Keepsakes Dream Team, she was part of the Creating Keepsakes Hall of Fame, and she was a Scrapbooker of the Year finalist.

Allison is also the creator of amazing sketches and is coming out with sketch books at this summers CHA show. As you all know, I love sketches and I use them all the time. I created this layout using a sketch that Allison had created.

She saw my layout and highlighted it on her blog. Words cannot even begin to tell you how flattered I was to receive the email from her, asking permission to showcase my layout. She said that my layout 'instantly caught her eye' and that she 'loved the colours, the clean lines, and the pictures were great'. I didn't even know what to say!

As a scrapbooker, it is always nice to receive positive feedback on something you have created. I am very lucky to have a wonderful group of followers on my blog that leave me positive comments and encouraging words. I appreciate them immensely!!! It is something very special to have your creations recognized by someone that you consider to be 'famous' in the scrapbooking world.

I just want to say a big THANK YOU to Allison for recognizing my layout and making my day. It was enough for me, just to create the layout, and add it to Jason's album. This just made it a little bit more special and I will always remember it when I flip through his book.


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Sunday, July 4, 2010

Eclipse - The Movie

Since Jason has started working at the Galaxy, we often receive updates on new movies and which ones are the popular ones. He has been scheduled to work for the last 5 nights in a row due to the release of Eclipse.

I had seen the first two movies on DVD and I had seen the previews for the newest one in theaters. I really wanted to see it. Monty and I decided to go to the movies on Friday night, but we were going to see the movie Grown Ups. When we arrived, it was sold out, so we went to see Eclipse.

To be honest, I didn't think I could get hooked on a movie series about vampires, but I have. It was a fantastic movie. There is drama, action and of course, romance. Check out this trailer.



I can't quite explain what it is that I like so much about this movie series. It is sort of slow moving and a little odd, but it is definitely gripping..........and this is another reason I will continue to watch..........



If you haven't had a chance to see Eclipse, I would highly recommend it.


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Thursday, July 1, 2010

Design Team Reveal!

Here it is, July 1st! That means that it is design team reveal day at Two Scrapbook Friends. I was fortunate enough to find time to play along again this month. I had so much fun working with this product.

Will You Swing With Me........

I had a pattern for this tree in my stash for a long time. This was the perfect layout for me to try it out. I added stitching to all of the die-cuts to give them dimension and make them stand out. I was inspired by a layout done by Jana Eubank and I added some extra details to make it my own.

This is a photo of Amanda and my niece swinging at the park on Easter Sunday! They are like two peas in a pod and when I see photos of them together it makes me smile.

Love Birds..........

This layout was based on a sketch by Joanne. I have wanted to use it for a while and I thought I would try it out here because of the birds. I changed it up a bit......that is what I love about sketches.

Here is her sketch. You can visit her blog here!

A Happy Day.........

This layout was so much fun to do. I love the houses and the picket fences. I added some stamping around the background and stitched the die-cut circle too. This layout was inspired by a design by Audrey Yeager! I used the papers I had and added my own details.

Be sure to check out our layout gallery to see what the rest of the team created.


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Little Red Wagon #35 - Tags

Sorry I am a little late with my post. I have been on holidays and I guess I am in a real holiday mode. Joanne has challenged us to create a tag for this weeks Little Red Wagon challenge. I have just received a new stamp set that I ordered from Lawn Fawn, so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to try it out.

I paper pieced the image (stamped it on my tag and then stamped it again on the pattern paper and cut it out. Then I adhered it over top of the stamped image on the tag......love this technique).

I made a little banner for the sentiment.

Be sure to check out what the rest of the team has created. Be inspired and play along.


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