Life is This...

Behind the Scenes...

Well the holidays are over... I sincerely hope you had a great one.  Like always we were busy here preparing ourselves for the big day... lots of shopping... and cleaning... and eating in abundance.

I was fortunate (or perhaps crazy) to host Christmas dinner for my entire family and my husbands this year.  We had a total of 28 people sit down for a turkey dinner and it was fabulous.

As you can see from the photo above it was a week of getting ready for the big meal.  We moved all of our furniture out of the living room... chairs downstairs, rug is storage, leather couch to the garage and set up some tables - 10 at each table and 8 at our dining room table - it looked like we were catering a wedding!!  Dinner was great - we cooked the two turkeys the day before and reheated it with the lettuce - I was SOO hesitant about this - and believe I thought the exact same thing you are thinking - but it wa DELICIOUS!!  So moist - and full of flavour - I will NEVER cook a turkey on the same day again - made the stress level drop from about 10 to a 2 instantly with not having to worry about it.  All the food kept nice and warm in Chaffing dishes... and with everyone pitching in and bringing something it was truly a fantastic day! 

So now that everything is put away and we have had a few days to recover from all of the chaos I've been doing a lot of thinking and pondering about the new year.  

A fresh start....

A new beginning...

A chance to change...

A time to reanalyze, rethink, and redesign...

And with that I will be back shortly as I feverishly work towards revamping this thing called my blog.  A new commitment... some few changes... and a new adventure as well.

More to come soon!

 

Thinking outside of the box with Holding On...

I did mention that I have been keeping busy in my scraproom.  I still can't share all of my projects but I did have one up on the SEI blog last week that I can now post here.

As you all know 2011 hasn't really been a very good year for our family.... I actually can't believe it is almost over and hopefully next year will bring brighter and happier times.  

When families - or even couples go through lots of stuff sometimes it brings along a wedge that just comes alongs and sits itself right between you and your spouse... I've seen it happen to friends... I have felt it happening to us in the past.... but kicked it out of that space very easily.  There is one thing for certain in my life and that it the rock solid relationship me and my wonderful husband have. Yes we fight... Yes sometimes we get on each others nerves... but in the end he really is my best friend... even when all we want to do is cry... we somehow manage to make each other laugh.  I know I have talked about this before... and I apologize if you are sick of hearing it LOL - but I guess I am just so aware of how lucky I am to have found my soul mate.

This layout uses A Fair Day line from SEI.  Although it has a Carnival/Park theme to it - again I wanted to showcase it in a different way.  Sometimes we have to think outside of the box and document our feelings without all of the drama.  When I first say this line I again wondered how I was going to use it as my boys are out of the ride phase - and as soon as I say the rollercoaster paper it came to me... my life.... it is a roller coaster... and I knew what I wanted to document.

You can see the layout on the SEI blog here.

Here it is with some close ups as well.

HOLDING ON

I love the background on this layout.  I used my SEI Tumble Dye inks and instead of spraying them I just unscrewed the cam and "flinged" in on the paper.  I also used some of the pearls from White Elegance and placed them sporadically with the My Fair Lady hearts on the Embellishment sheet.  I love the whimsical happy feeling it gives it.

I hope you are all having a great weekend... feel free to say hello....

Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away to the next room.
I am I, and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
That, we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow

Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, Smile, think of me. Pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that is always was.
|Let it be spoken without effect.
Without the trace of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolute unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?

 I am but waiting for you.
For an interval.
Somewhere. Very near.
Just around the corner

All is well.

~Henry Scott Holland~ 

Sadly this morning - the world lost a wonderful man.  My father in law lost his battle with Amyloidosis - a rare illness that most have never even heard of, including myself up until a short time ago.  He was a strong man, a family man, someone who made us laugh, my husbands best friend, a role model for my sons.  I can't believe that he has been taken at such a young age... he was liked by everyone... we still had so much to learn from him. He still had so much love to give. 

I am sorry for being so quiet this last little while... but everything has moved so fast and I have just needed to be with my family during this difficult time.  My heart is broken for my husband, my mother in law, my children and especially for his mother.  No mother should ever have to say goodbye to their own child... it is not fair.  

Dad would certainly not want us to dwell on our loss and to continue on with our lives - but it just isn't right that he isn't here to share it with us. To say we will miss him doesn't even begin to cover how our lives will be affected. Who will we call for advise?  Who will Jared make laugh with his antics?  Who will hold my mother in law's hand?  Life just doesn't make sense sometimes.  

 

The family is asking for donation to The Canadian Amyloidosis Support Network in hopes that somewhere down the road... a cure will be found... doctors will become more educated on this desease... diagnosis will become quicker...  and others can be spared from having to feel this sadness.

Hugs to you all...

 

 

Summer Synopsis

 

Wow I can't believe it is August already and here in Ontario the kids have only one month left before school starts back up.... where has the summer gone!

I've been keeping myself occupied with a steady flow of entertaining, relaxing and being a general homebody.  Last week we did get away for a week to the lovely Blue Mountain Resort in Collingwood Ontario... which was a much needed holiday for us.  The resort is beautiful and who would have thought that only driving 2 1/2 hours away can make you feel like you are on an island get-a-way.  We kept very busy the entire time we were there.... filling our days with zip lining, tree top walking, relaxing on the beach, roller coaster rides, and a fantastic hummer tour which was my favourite... here are a few pics of our week away....

If anyone in the area is looking for a great get-a-way I highly recommend Blue Mountain... oh and I should mention - Zip Lining and Tree Top Walking were NOT my thing and I chickened out... nope my legs were way to wobbly up there in those trees LOL!!  I made it through the first 5 trees and then used the chicken ladder to get myself out of there!!  Zip lining was certainly a no go so I walked the senic route down the 1000 ft course! Oh well at least I tried it!!

In other areas - life has not been what we expected.  I know I have mentioned before that my father in law is very ill - and at 59 years old - we never ever expected to be going through this with him. My parents are in their 80's - you would think we would be dealing with their health issues... never has it been more apparant in life that you NEVER know what is next... people can say that time and time again... but we all need to start living our lives with this as a constant.

Sadly my FIL has been diagnosed with Amyloidosis.  It is a desease that up until a month or so ago I'd never even heard of... one I wish would have stayed away from our family.  It is hard... the not knowing... the ups and downs... getting to this point of a diagnosis... mostly the frustration of the medical system while watchig someone you love become so frail and week.  My priority right now is to just be HERE for my husband, my kids and my in-laws... for when and if I'm needed... to be the shoulder for my husband to lean on... to let him know its OK to feel scared... to ease the stress whenever I can... to be honest with my kids who are lucky to not have experience this type of sadness in their life up until now... but mostly just to be HERE.  My husband and I have been spending every waking minute together when possible.... bike riding, walking, playing games on the ipad, and just hanging out in the backyard, together, quiet and just relaxing. In an odd way this has made us even closer than we already were. It is a huge wake up call to what is important and what isn't in life. For me I look at him and become almost overwhelmed with fear at the thought of this happening to him... how I would manage... and then my mind turns to my mother in law who has been with him since thier teenage years and can not imagine the pain she is going through... how scared she must be. We are all thinking positive thoughts and know that we will one day get to the end of this road and celebrate his renewed health on this long journey.  In the meantime we are taking it one day at a time...

That brings me to what I should be posting about on this blog and that is scrapbooking... or should I say the lack of it.  I haven't so much as even been in my scraproom for the last weeks... I've tried to bring back a spark of creativity.  I visited my LSS last week - picked up a Smash Book - thought it may spark some creativity but nothing really.  I thought something was lighting my creative candle last week while on holidays and reading the few scrap magazines I haven't had time to look at yet... but when I get home all... I just feel guilty and overwhelmed coming downstairs to create - when all I just want to do is be around my family and husband. It feels like I need to soak up every second we have together... how crazy does this all sound... I know it does... but I can only hope that perhaps someone out there can relate to what I have going on in my life right now.

In other scrapbooking news sadly my term with SEI is coming to and end.  They have a new call out for their next term.  I so love this team and their products - and honestly it makes me feel sick to think that I have to leave... I'm considering my options but I need to be realistic before I make any decisions about reapplying to this or any other team right now. By this time next week we will have some answers on what to expect coming up with my FIL's illness and that should bring some clarity to what I want or need to do with the future of this hobby of mine.

So I hope you are all enjoying your summer so far.  If any of you have been sending emails and Im not responding give me another shout - I have only been corresponding with my iPhone and it seems to miss some - I just deleted almost 2000 emails this morning - cause I couldn't go through them all - and I figured I have looked at most of the important ones I have received on my phone.

I am thinking about all of my wonderful friends I've made in this hobby over the years and would like to thank those who have reached out wondering if everything is ok and where I've been.  I know that this is something that is a part of me and my life... it will never go away - I have lost my mojo before (especially in the summer) but it somehow seems to come out of hiding when the leaves start falling and I am so hoping that it will do so once again soon.

For now I will just continue to make memories... for me... for my family... and for my future scapbook pages when the time is right...

I know I probalby have no readers out there but I would love to hear from any of you that so kindly are still checking in.. please make sure to leave a comment!

Today and Tomorrow....

are just like any other of the 365 days of the year... the difference being - these are the days that my darling husband and I were born.  Yup today - 44 years ago - the world truly became a better place - and then I followed him 366 days later....

As we become older birthdays are something that we tend to just want to forget about... or I do anyways... LOL!  I am a believer that age is only a number... its how you act and live your life that is your true age... this forever holds me at 21 in my mind LOL!!

I'm off to work this morning and I think I will take my this wonderful man out for lunch... maybe tonight or tomorrow we will take the kids out for dinner.  At the very least I will stop and grab an ice cream cake so we can sign happy birthday to him... he deserves to be sung happy birthday too.  For both of us these few days bring mixed emotions. Its sad that past events have rooted themselves into 2 days that are supposed to be happy and celebratory. I feel so bad for my husband - he deserves better.  I can see how much he tries to hide it but I've known this man for more than half of my life and I know when he has been hurt.  I can't pretend like these two days don't exist .... cause if our birthdays didn't exist... that means that he doesn't exist... and as mushy as it may sound... my life is entirely about him... he is my strength... my confidant... the ying to my yang... my best friend in the world... and definitely my soul mate. I sometimes become overwhelmed with fear thinking about what my life would be without him. No one makes me laugh like him and no one even comes close to understanding me like he does. So for now we will go about the next few day like any other day... and just be thankful that we've made it to see the number go up once again! 

More than anything else in the world all I want is for him to have a Happy Birthday!  I love you with all of my heart...and thank you so much for being our everything...

Justified....

Well... its been well over a year.  The big announcement on Apple's revolutionary new product - the iPad.  The jokes were a plenty on the naming of the product... but like everything... Apple's marketing team is genius and soon line ups and shortages were world wide.

Rewind to 6 months previous when my shiny brand new Mac hit my home - I was instantly converted!!  Never again will a Windows product enter my home.  I am an Apple Geek... and I say that with pride. Fast forward now to July of 2010 and my Blackberry was no longer my friend... I longed for the convenience of my iMac with the portabillity of a phone... AND an awesome camera to boot!  Welcome home iPhone 4... that was my baby.... (until yesterday).

So how in the world would (or could) I possibly justify this shiny gadget.  Somewhere in between my two Apple loving electronics currently in our home.  My love for everything iPad has been growing stronger by the month.  With the announcement of the 2nd generation iPad and heaven forbid...GASP... in WHITE!!! I swooned at the possibility of having one in my hand.  Trips to Best Buy to swipe and play were followed by taking a few kleenex's out of my purse to wipe off the drool left behind... (the poor kid who played after me....yuck).

Well as luck may have it - I really don't have a legitimate necessity for one.  Besides the fact that in my old age - reading over 200 blogs in my Google Reader was becoming less and less fun on my iPhone screen.  I feel very out of touch in my forums and galleries lately with trying not to be in my scraproom as much... and of course trying to spend more time with the family and my wonderful, generous, magnificent darling husband.... (did I mention he is the best!!)) Posting to this blog and replying to posts is hard with my naturally stubby fingers on a keyboard that is provided on the iPhone 4.... so of course the logical solution is an iPad... that's my story and Im sticking to it OK?  Portable, larger that iP4, can help me with my problem, I can use it when 5 teenagers are in my basement and I can not even go near my computer... (which is pretty much every weekend now), it is so much fun for the family to play with... so that dear friends is my reason why this baby came into my home yesterday.  

All I can say is that I am in love... once again with all things Mac.... this baby is the cutest of all my Mac babies in the past. I can envision sitting outside in the summer reading, surfing, playing games, and keeping on top of all of my favourite blogs without harming my eyes or looking like I went to a grade 2 level with my spelling on emails, blog comments, or posts.  I love that I can actually sit with the family and do some work at the same time... (oh who am I kidding - its all about Doodlejump), and I love that it sits on our coffee table in the living room for the entire family to use or entertain themselves with.  

I was very unselfish when the screaming pink, orange, and green covers were calling me loud and clear.  Oh how cute are those!!!  But I stood my ground... blocked out the voices... told the vibrant orange, and lime green (who were in equal position to coming home with me) that I was sorry but the Grey cover has won... yup boring grey... the practical side of me decided that this would look the best in our living room!!!  Perhaps orange will sneak itself into our lives during the summer when it will change its cover for outdoor occasions... that's a thought...

So who else out there has a sister to my new arrival?  What are your favourite apps?  Do you read books on your iPad, morning paper, magazines?  I loved last night having it on in the kitchen while we were cooking dinner with our iTune library on shuffle... and no the 17 current iPods in this home would have NOT done the same thing... they simply don't look as nice :)

Here again is my baby - with the flowers purchased as a welcome to the family present. 

Don't they look happy together.

Some Christmas projects to share...

When you have a family as large as I do and have as many people to buy for on holidays like Christmas - I most often start to feel overwhelmed.  Case in point was this past holiday season and trying to frantically decide what our 87 and 85 year old grandmothers would enjoy.  They don't NEED anything - they certainly have accumulated more stuff over the years than most of us - so I have in the past done some creative stuff for them.

The basic albums have been done.  Last year (or maybe the year before) I made a DVD for them - but Im not sure if they have used it since I played it for them on the eve of the gift.  I was opting for a flower arrangement every month to be delivered to them - I thought it would brighten their day and certainly be a gift that keeps on giving long after the holidays are over - but then I stumbled accross THESE at Scrapalicious in Mississauga and I knew I could use them for something.

My first thought was abviously to do a little mini album but as time went on I realized:

    1. In general most people usually can not appreciate the time, effort, or $ value associated to large scrapbooking projects..

    2. My time was greatly limited as the days went on

    3.  And probably most importantly - both Nana and Grandma like to basically just look at the photo's.  As mentioned previously at 87 and 85 years of age - its sometimes the simple things that they treasure the most

    4. Finally - I was thinking ahead to other occasions for them and gift ideas.

So with all of these factors weighing in on my mind - I ended up with this:

  
 
 They are both similar in style but just changed up the colours and the inside photo's to match their families respectively.  Honestly these were the fastest gifts I have ever made.  I used iPhoto and it printed out my photo's with these nifty frames around them - which just adds a little touch of fancy that I know Gandma and Nana love.  I just picked up some 4 x 6 sleeves at my local Camera store (which were $2 for 25 of them!!)  I used an older chipboard word that I won with my prize package with the Sketchbook Olympics and was happy to be able to use some of the products finally.  I love my Tattered Angels gold mist I used to fancy everything up - soooo yummy on those prima flowers!! And finally I just mixed the two up a bit more with Concentrating on blues for the one and greens for the other to match their decor.

One other fabulous thing about a project like this is now for birthdays and next year I can just update the photo's and I will have something to add to their presents.  If I wanted to I could do a few journalling pages to add as well - really the possibilities are endless!

Here are some close ups of the two of them:

   

 

  

 And here are a few shots of them enjoying them on Christmas Eve....

 

 

 

Can you believe how great they look for their age.  Grandma (the one in purple) is 87 and this is the first year that she hasn't done Christmas Eve!!  It was nice to see her finally relax and enjoy the holidays...

Please share with me some of your holiday projects I love getting ideas that are fun, easy and versatile!!

Hugs!

 

So there I was...

I think it was after midnight. Just sent in my submissions for the spring call to Canadian Scrapbooker, finished loading up my recent layouts to my blog, read all of my Google Reader over the weekend...ok maybe not read them ALL ... since I have over 200 blogs I follow!! YIKES (mental note - REALLY need to make that smaller - but damn there is soooo much inspiration out there!)

I look into a envelope that my MIL had given me earlier - and I pull out this photo of my niece!  Ahhhh... how adorable is this!  I look over to my left and see some BEE-U-Ti-Ful papers that I picked up recently from my LSS from Scrap within Reach and I couldn't stop myself.

So here it is ... yet another layout for the Plum Challenge over at the Moxie Fab World Blog .  I really didn't do this because of the challenge.. .it was because I was feeling creative at the moment...hey I just spent hours looking at my favourite scrapping girls...and I knew if I didn't do it right then and there.. my mojo would somehow disappear while I was sleeping.  I told you I LOVE all things purple so I've been drooling over these papers for some time now.  I though Oh Ill just play and do my pre layout shuffling around... and this is what resulted...

Beauty

 

 

 

 

Products Used:  Scrap Within Reach Pattern Papers and Ribbon, Kaiser Craft Wood Embellishments, Making Memories, Thickers, Prima Bling, Maya Road Pins and Maya Mist Tm Holtz Tiny Attacher, Martha Stewart Punches

So ya, I know... are you surprised about the shabby chic thing going on here! In contrast to the layouts below... it's a different look for me.. ut I was so inspired by the photo and paper I through all caution out the door... or maybe it was the lack of sleep and the 4:00 am bed time that had me doing things I wouldn't normally do LOL!!

Hope you have a great Monday!  Im off to clean this explosion on my scrap table and to get some groceries..I've been a really bad housewife this weekend and lots of catching up to do!

Hugs

Some Layouts to share...and some more Plum Craziness

So now that I'm done all of revamping of my blog design...I have some layouts to post and catch up on. I've created these first two in the last couple of weeks and have used them for some DT submissions.. some successful... some not LOL!  The most important part though is I got to play around and as I've said before I LOVE scrapping for myself...I usually end up with my best work!

For those who follow me I know I have scrapped these next photo's before but I was looking at them and had some black and white prints - and they are some of my favourite shots of my boys... so I used them again.

I really went out of my style here... but I LOVE the way this layout turned out.  It is probably one of my favourites that I have done in a LOOONG time.  Don't you just love when your layouts just fall into place.! I also love that I used up some of my old supplies for this as well - I never used those Tattered Angels trees for masks - so why not just use them on a layout!!

FROSTY FRIENDS

    
 

Products Used:  Bazzill, Imaginisce, Thickers, American Crafts, Martha Stewart Punches, Stickles.

My second layout is of my adorable niece...yes - she totally cracks me up and melts my heart at the same time.  Just some candids I took of her with my telephoto zoom - I love how she is just so totally in her own little world...so adorable.

And...I also just realized that I used Plum on this layout...I seriously think that this is one of my other favourite shades of purple!  I think the challenge over on the Moxie Fab Blog has got me seriously addicted to scrapping with this colour! 

SO HAPPY TOGETHER

 

Product Used:  Bazzill, Imaginisce, Prima, Maya Road, Sassafrass, Fiskars Punch, Martha Stewart Punch, Misc Ribbon and Ink.

To end if you haven't had a chance to head on over to the Plum Crazy challenge on the Moxie Fab World Blog make sure you do!  Im not much of a talented card creator myself but WOW some of them are incredible on there...lots and lots of eye candy to see there!! 

Have yourself a great week ladies...I will have one more layout to share for this weeks sketch over at the Got Sketch Blog!  I've really missed contributing there and am so happy that they have asked me back!  

Hugs!

The day of nothing...

Have you ever had those days.  You know the ones - you wake up - walk to the couch - slouch around there for a bit - go downstairs promising that you will go outside and rake those leaves in just a few minutes. Turn on the TV.  Watch some Sunday afternoon football (yup I know I do enjoy football) fall asleep - wake up - lounge some more....

Ugh... that was my day today.  Not only mine but my wonderful husband joined me on this adventure of laziness as well.  And for a bit I had our youngest in my grips of couch potato syndrome!!

So many plans, so much to do, and so little energy!!  We finally came out of the abyss earlier this evening and decided to at least make my munchkins some dinner... well ok by make I mean drive to Wendy's to get some burgers....and after they forget to include the dressing for my salad even that was unproductive like the rest of my day.  I need to go back to bed and have a do over.

I did happen to get one thing accomplished today...

I think I managed to talk my youngest son out of purchasing one of these...

 

... and yes that is a bearded dragon!!!

As well as winning the laziest mom of the day award - I am positive that I am also among the top three in the "Depriving you child of any sort of pet" awardl!!

We went to a football party last night (for the coaches - and NO it had nothing to do with why we laid around all day feeling hungov... uhm tired) and the hosting house had one of these.  Well actually a few of Jared's friends have these as well - and lets just say that he's been bugging for one for a bit.  He almost had me talked into it... they aren't all that bad...Im not Deathly afraid of them... but I would NEVER ever admit that on this blog....

I think the only way out of this is to work on my Darling Husband for that dog that me and my two sons want....he didn't actually say NO today...but Im not certain if he was awake when we asked either?

After all a dog would lay with me all day and keep me company while sleeping on the couch... oh yeah so would that reptile thing...shhh don't tell!

Have a great week everyone...I hope it brings you everything that you desire!!

Lori