30 July, 2009

Brag Book Blog Train!!

Now, not only did we have the Tutti Frutti Threebie Freebie this week (and it's still available for a couple of days at Scraps of Ellay, The Scrappy Kat and Nibbles Skribbles' blogs), but all three CTs have gotten together to create an amazing brag book blog train for you!  You get a bunch of amazing pages and you have a ready made album!  You can get a list of all the blogs if you head over to Scraps of Ellay's blog here.  Here is a preview of most of the pages.  There are more that didn't even fit in the preview!!
Here is the preview and links to pick up my freebies!
You can pick this up from 4shared here.

And you can pick this one up from 4shared here.

Don't forget to go pick up the rest of the train!

Until next time...

28 July, 2009

OK.  I am exhausted.  I think swimming lessons are taking as much out of me as they are out of Xander.  He did really well today, by the way.  He was almost a little keener.  (This was after our talk yesterday).  I think he actually had a lot of fun, too.  Anyway, I'm just here for a quick announcement about some speed scraps over at Stuff to Scrap tomorrow.  It'd be nice if I got to one of them but I think the carpet is coming up in our bedroom tomorrow so that may be a pipe dream!

Anyway, here they are - tomorrow afternoon:
With this beautiful participation prize:
And tomorrow evening (this one is sponsored by Eva Marina Scraps and hosted by one of the CT members!
And look at this adorable participation prize!  Isn't the word art really cute?
Now I must go get everything ready so I can go to bed!

Until next time...

26 July, 2009

New Kits!!

First off, everyone who did the challenge got to move on in Scrapping Survivor so now we're on to the next challenge!  It's pretty exciting and I can't wait to do the next one.

It was a very busy weekend with much family and some friends and a little bit of football.  The game didn't go our way but some of them had fun (especially my brother-in-law who cheered for the OTHER team).  Xander fell asleep at the end of the 3rd quarter and slept through the very loud 4th quarter.  I think he's still a bit too young for football.  It moves a little slow than car racing!

Now that that is out of the way, I've got a couple of new kits to share with you.  The first one is a three-way collaboration between Scraps of Ellay, The Scrappy Kat and Nibbles Skribbles - three wonderful Stuff to Scrap designers!  They've done a wonderful kit called Tutti Frutti.  It's full of fun colours and really fun elements (lot of yummy, yummy fruit!!).  It is a freebie for this week ONLY!  You can start by picking up Lori's part and then there are links to The Scrappy Kat and Nibbles Skribbles parts there, as well.  There will even be a surprise later in the week!

Here is a page that I did using just Lori's part:
Aren't they just too cute?  I love the watermelon paper that I used to mat the little picture!

Here is Lori's preview - you can go to her blog here to pick it up:
Also, Eva Marina Scraps has a new kit out this week!  Eva has a big birthday coming up in August so she did this bright and fun birthday kit to help celebrate.  It's called 1-2-3 Blow! (cute name, eh?) and is available in the Stuff to Scrap store.  Here is a layout I did with the kit - this is my niece on her 5th birthday.
Here is a preview of the entire kit, which you can pick up at the store here.

It's late now and I should be on my way!

Until next time...

25 July, 2009

Scrapping Survivor Voting!!

You can vote for me here (username sberkan) but you do have to register at the GingerScraps forum first so if you want to - that'd be great!  I have no votes yet so I'm pleading!!  Voting closes at 11 p.m. EST tonight!

24 July, 2009

Scrapping Stuff!!

Well, life has been busy but I've got a sale to tell you about and a few scrapping things to show you!  First the sale...Stuff to Scrap is having Christmas in July!!  Tomorrow (Saturday) the entire store will be on sale for 25% off (except CU licenses)...don't miss these great deals!  You can check out the flier below and click here to head over to the store!

I guess it has been awhile since I posted any scrapping LOs.  I have a few but the two competitions I'm in have been keeping me busy!!  This first LO is for GingerScraps Scrapping Survivor competition (kinda like the show, I guess, since I never watch it).  We're not sure how voting works yet but I think it's open to the public so if you want to vote for me you can go to the GingerScraps forum.  Submissions don't close until tonight (Friday) at midnight so I guess voting will be Saturday!?  Anyway, the first challenge was to scrap a page using a collab by the GingerScraps designers called Another Day in Paradise...here is what I did with a pic from my trip to Hawaii in 2000 (wow, almost 10 years ago!!).
Kit - Another Day in Paradise

The other competition I'm in is at Digi-Scrap Addicts and is a team competition.  It's called Battle of the Creative Teams.  So I'm battling with other members of the Scraps of Ellay creative team.  Our challenge for week 1 was to create a "white space" layout (ie lots of empty area).  We had to scrap in a colour theme so we all used the same kit.  P.S. Week 2 is currently going on and if you want to vote on Monday or Tuesday you can go to DSA (you don't even have to register in the forum!)  Anyway, this was my week 1 LO and I really like it!
Kit - Sara Smile by Scraps of Ellay

This next page was for the Scrap what? challenge at STS.  We had to scrap about a movie.  I've had these ticket stubs sitting around for a while and have been meaning to do this page so it was great for me!
Kit - Big Top by Stolen Moments
Frame - Grungy Frame 5 by Kylie M. Designs
Greenery, Flowers & Wrap - Love in Black & White by Bidouille (recoloured)
Film Strips - Dernier Sceance by juliegoodgirl
Scene clapper (or whatever it's called) - Dernier Sceance by MerePoule

I did this next one for a speed scrap that I was late to but i managed to do the whole page, start to finish - including installing a new font in my software - in 25 minutes!  I was quite proud of myself and I really like how it turned out!
Kit - Down by the Lily Pond Collab by A Work in Progress and Mel Hains Designs
Alpha - Iron Alpha by Elegant Word Art by Bethany

This last page was for the quote challenge at STS.  We had to choose all or part of the given quote, which was from the movie Love, Actually.  It was a really long quote with so much potential, but I'd just taken this picture of my sister and nephew the day before, so I had to use it!  I love this page, by the way.
Kit - Pimp My Life by Loloden Designs

I think that's it for now, but I have chosen my 365 pictures up to date.  All I have to do is edit them and then I can post again!  Yay - I'll be caught up but this weekend is crazy so I'm not sure when I'll do it!!

Until next time...

22 July, 2009

Two more weeks of pictures!! Days 179 to 192

I've got two more weeks of pictures ready to go...yay!!  I'll be caught up in no time.  I have been really busy with trying to get projects done around here.  My sister and I started scanning in my parents slides and that is still keeping me incredibly busy.  I've also got coat one on my cupboard doors and they are eagerly awaiting coat two.  Also, our bedroom floor project will be starting this weekend so I need to get my bedroom cleaned out!  All this while working, looking after my two boys and even babysitting tomorrow!  Oh well, life is good.

On we go now to the pictures!!

Day 179 (June 28):
This is Jason's cousin Jessica in her grad dress.  Her Mom is the one who babysits our boys.  She graduated from grade 12 this year and there was a little party for her on the Sunday afternoon.  It brings back memories of my grad and how high school seemed so important back then and, in retrospect, wasn't as big a deal as we made it out to be!  It is a gorgeous dress that she has, though!

Day 180 (June 29):
We bought a bike for Xander this weekend.  We figured that he was likely old enough now to learn.  However, he is a stubborn child and, even though he knows how to do it, he won't and then says it's too hard.  What a crazy little child...I wonder where he gets his stubbornness from? ;)

Day 181 (June 30):
Today was Bethany's birthday (and my sister Colette's and Jason's cousin Jessica's and my Aunt Betty's).  Happy birthday to all today!  It was another princess-y type party but Bethie wanted a ladybug cake so that's what she had.  It was very cute, too.  The little crown did have to come out, though I think Erin wore it as much as Bethie!

Day 182 (July 1):
Happy Canada Day!  We didn't do anything in particular for Canada Day.  The kids are too little to stay up for fireworks and we just wanted to hang out around home.  We did see this duck and her babies waddle into our yard.  They sat in the sand box for quite some time trying to find a way out.  I think they were heading down to Wascana Lake but the fence was in the way.  I hope they made it!

Day 183 (July 2):
The boys and I all went to get our hair cut.  The salon around the corner closed so we headed to the salon that my cousin works at (though she was on vacation and couldn't cut our hair).  Nana came along to help entertain the boys while I got mine done.  It worked out fairly well.  The hairdresser styled my hair straight and Xander did not like it a bit.  I came out from the chair and he looks at me and says "That's not pretty!".  It stayed straight for a couple of days and I had to bug him a few times.  I asked him if he liked it straight and he finally said "yes" and then I asked him if it should be curly again and he got a big smile and it was, like, "YES".  It was really cute.  At one point in time, he talked about his hair and said "I like straight hair" so I turned and asked "You like straight hair?"  He says to me "Not on you Mom, just me!"  It was cute that his world was so out of order over my hair!

Day 184 (July 3):
Here is Evan playing at the computer.  It's amazing how much technology changes.  Not only is he so young and on a computer, but there are two monitors hooked up for him to play on!  It's really crazy to think that!

Day 185 (July 4):
We finally decided to go out and get Evan a mattress of his own so he could get out of the crib.  It was about time.  Xander moved out of the crib much earlier than that.  Evan loved his mattress as soon as we put it down and he hasn't even cared about his crib since then.  He did get up a bit the first couple of nights but that's not a problem anymore.  The only problem is that when he wakes up at 5 a.m., he can get up and wander into our room!

Day 186 (July 5):
Here are my boys all dressed up, ready for family pictures.  We had a wonderful lady take family pictures of us in the jerseys we got in Indianapolis.  Aren't they cute?  My jersey is white so I stick out a little bit.  The pictures are just now done and we are going to pick them up this weekend.  I've seen a few and they are great!

Day 187 (July 6):
My sister and her two kids came up for a visit this week.  Her husband was working at camp so the three of them came to Regina for a visit.  We had a ton of fun and the kids always like to play together.  It was her daughter's birthday a couple days before they came so we had a lovely ice cream cake to celebrate once they got to Regina.

Day 188 (July 7):
Here is a portion of the stack of slides that was our project for the week.  We actually managed to get a fair number of them done but there are still a few for me to work on!  This is only about a third of the carousels or so!  My parents have a LOT of slides!

Day 189 (July 8):
I went upstairs to check on the boys and I found Evan sleeping like this with his pajama pants off!  I don't know what he was up to but these pants are a little big and he HATES stepping on the bottom of his pants!

Day 190 (July 9):
We had a sister's day this day.  Michelle came up from Manitoba and the rest of us were already in Regina.  Rona had to work but the three of us went shopping for the afternoon and then all four of us went for supper.  It was really nice to have the four of us all together like this!  Sorry you missed out, Mom, we'll have to do it again sometime!

Day 191 (July 10):
Here are the kids playing at the park.  We went to the park that is just across the street and around the corner.  They spent as much time playing in the rocks as on the equipment.  I don't know what it is about kids and rocks but boy do they love them!!

Day 192 (July 11):
This was free Slurpee day at 7-11 (because it was July 11th ie 7-11).  So, we took the kids all down and got Slurpees.  This was the first time the boys ever had Slurpees and they just LOVED them.  Go figure - it's ice and pop...what's not to like.  I thought this was an adorable picture of them all eating their Slurpees!!

There we go...another two weeks down.  Now I think I only have about two weeks left to go until I'm all caught up!  I'll be back, likely tomorrow, with some LOs, including the one I did for Scrapping Survivor (by the way, if anyone wants to head over to the GingerScraps forum and vote for me when the voting starts, that'd be awesome - I'll post a link tomorrow with my LOs).

Until next time...

15 July, 2009

Freebie Quick Page and Days 165 to 178

Well, I'm not feeling particularly well today, but I thought I'd post this as quickly as I can, given how long it will be.  I started feeling poorly last night and I don't think it helped that I was awake until the wee hours of the morning!!  Jason and Xander went to Estevan with Jason's Dad, brother-in-law and nephew to see the dirt track racing.  A sometimes NASCAR driver, Kenny Wallace, was going to be racing.  However, the races didn't end until 11:30 p.m. and it's a 2-hour drive home!  Xander had a ton of fun, though, and got to see his very first fireworks (I stayed home with Evan who could not possibly function at that hour!!).  It only rained a little and I'm glad they enjoyed it.  I still have one more day to work this week so hopefully it goes by quickly or I'm feeling a lot better tomorrow.  I have just enough achy muscles and headache to make concentrating very difficult!

Anyway, if you're here for the freebie, I'll interrupt my ramblings and give it to you right away.  I did up this quick page with the Magyk Kit from Scraps of Ellay.  You can still get it free on her blog until the end of the week!  Without further ado, here it is:
You can download it from 4shared here.

Now, on to my pictures and more ramblings.

Day 165 (June 14):
This was my niece Erin's birthday party.  She's all about the princess thing.  She loves Disney princesses and even had to wear a cute little princess tiara at her party.  She just turned 3 and her Mom made a lovely little princess cake.  Since Erin's been in my Sunday School class, she's decided that she likes me so we even got to play Ring Around the Rosie.  It was a good birthday party!

Day 166 (June 15):
Now, I'll be the first to admit that I forgot to take a picture on this day.  Oops.  I guess it's the second time I've forgotten.  However, I have a good reason...this is what I was doing instead...
This is a self-portrait of me sleeping.  I guess I was just really tired that day.  I got home from work, did the stuff with the kids and, when Jason took Xander to bed, I fell asleep on the couch.  Oh well, I guess this will do!  P.S. I don't normally sleep with my glasses on but I forgot about realism with the self-portrait!

Day 167 (June 16):
I wasn't sure what to take a picture of but I had just bought some nectarines and they were SO good so they won out.  I just love fruit and I really like how the water in the glass pitcher looks in the background!

Day 168 (June 17):
Another food picture...I wonder where my mind was these days!  Anyway, here is Jason making chicken mozzas for supper (chicken strips and mozza cheese on garlic (or not) toast grilled - so yummy!!).  Really, this should be a picture of my Griddler.  I got this with my Air Miles and I love it so much.  i cook with it all the time.  I even grilled steak in the winter which is not something I usually do. It has both grill and griddle plates so we can do sandwiches, pancakes, eggs, chicken, steak...you get the picture.  It's awesome!!

Day 169 (June 18):
Here is Xander helping me plant tomatoes.  He was such a good little helper, separating the cages and putting them around the plant.  I was so late that I wasn't going to plant them this year but Xander was so disappointed that he wouldn't get to water tomatoes.  As you can see, like a good Mom, I caved and planted some!

Day 170 (June 19):
The work is starting on the church.  We got a phone call this bright morning from Uncle Craig who let us know that the excavator was starting work at the church.  Off we popped in the stroller and here we sat for over an hour watching him work and chatting with people.  Xander wasn't quite as excited this time because this private operator doesn't have nearly as many dump trucks as the city and there was a lot of waiting for the dump truck to get back!  Still, he had much fun and it was neat to see the progress start on the new building.

Day 171 (June 20):
I thought this picture of Evan was hilarious.  We introduced him to corn on the cob and he loved it but I held it for him the first time or two.  I couldn't get him to hold it (I'm not sure why) so I just put it down on his plate.  He was really cute, trying to eat off of it without picking it up!  He finally did figure out that it goes so much quicker if he just picks it up!

Day 172 (June 21):
This was Father's Day.  I had planned all day that my picture of the day would be my husband with his two boys.  Wouldn't you know, I completely forgot to take the picture.  I took this when we put Xander to bed (about an hour or so after Evan's bedtime).  Luckily, Evan wasn't actually asleep yet, so we didn't have to wake him.  I was just gonna get him in the background sleeping if he had been.

Day 173 (June 22):
Here Xander is trying to learn a new trick - a somersault.  I was trying to teach him but quickly realized that there's a reason adults don't do somersaults.  I couldn't even get going without thinking about how much that would hurt when I landed on the way down!  Xander did managed to get in one or two pretty good ones, though!

Day 174 (June 23):
Jason did actually take this picture but here are Xander and I playing Dance Dance Revolution - Disney Grooves.  This was my Mother's Day present.  Xander can actually get some even though he just jumps around on the mat like a crazy person!  It's actually quite funny and quite fun!

Day 175 (June 24):
Xander and I were playing Wii Sports this day.  Look at that we played "red bowling" (one of the training exercises) and I won!  It's actually quite a feat because Xander is really good at bowling and I am not.  I just bowled extraordinarily well on this game and he bowled really well, too!  He wanted to be in the picture so I let him! :)

Day 176 (June 25):
We went outside to blow bubbles this day.  Evan is just learning how and he likes to put the wand in his mouth (the taste didn't seem to bother him but I think it's starting to now).  He actually got off a couple of good blows before he started eating the stuff!

Day 177 (June 26):
This was the drive out to one of Jason's work functions.  In two weeks, he actually had two.  One for the company he works AT and one for the company he works FOR.  The first one was supper and bowling.  This one was golfing and supper.  We didn't do the golfing but we went out to the golf course for supper (Sherwood Forest or something like that).  This is the lane leading to the clubhouse.

Day 178 (June 27):
This is one of Xander's new favourite books.  I love Dr. Seuss, he is so fun so I'm glad Xander lets me read these to him.  It was actually really cute because the day before I took this picture, Xander brought the book into our bed when he woke up in the morning and he sat there "reading" it.  That child has an amazing memory because we hadn't read it very much by that point.  He would even quote parts exactly and do them how I read it.  It was so cute!

Wow!  I made it through two weeks of pictures so I'm slowly but surely catching up.  Hopefully I'll get caught up soon, but I'm participating in two scrapbooking contests in the next few weeks so that should keep me busy!  The first one, Battle of the Creative Teams at Digiscrap Addicts started today and is a team thing.  Hopefully it should be fun.  The other one, Scrapping Survivor at GingerScraps, starts on Sunday.  I don't watch Survivor but I think it should be fun, anyway.

I'd better go now, since I should try to go to bed early so I can survive work tomorrow!!

Until next time...

13 July, 2009

A Little Delinquent But Back With a Kit AND PIctures (Days 156 to 164)!!

I know that I haven't been blogging much this past week but that's because my sister and her two kids were here for a visit.  They were here for about a week and we had a lot of fun!  We played, went swimming, made sugar crystals...it was a good time.  In fact, all four of us sisters were even all in the city at once since my other sister came in from Manitoba for a day.  We managed to all go out for supper and we had a really great time!  The other thing that kept us busy is that my sister brought down all of my parents slides and we worked at scanning them in.  I was able to borrow a scanner that does slides and film and we spent A LOT of free time doing that.  We managed to scan in about 13 reels and I have 4 more to go.  It's a tonne of work, but I think it will be worth it in the long run.  Especially once we can all the info of who, where, when and so on!

So, this will be a really long post.  I have about 4 weeks of P365 to catch up on and I've got just over a week ready to go.  But first, the new kit...

Scraps of Ellay has teamed up with Dream Big Designs again to create a wonderful collab called Magyk!  It's still quite versatile and has some really great colours.  I didn't get much time to play with it this week but when I did, it was really a lot of fun!  This kit will be free for a week and you can get it on their blogs, but before I give you the links, I want to show you a couple layouts that I did.  The first one is using just Scraps of Ellay's part:
This next one uses both Scraps of Ellay and Dream Big Designs' parts.  I did this one for the recipe challenge over at Stuff to Scrap:
See what I mean about it being a great kit?!!  Here are the previews of each of their parts:
Scraps of Ellay - you can pick it up on her blog here.
and Dream Big Designs - you can get it on her blog here.

Now it's on to P365.  These are from the beginning of June.  I hate it when I get behind on something because it always seems to take me forever to catch back up.  Hopefully I can get this going, though.  I have to work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday because I switched days this week so I'd be off today.  That will slow me down a bit just because changing days always seems to throw things a bit off-kilter!  Anyway, now let's see if I remember why I took any of these pictures ;) !

Day 156 (June 5):
This was the day after we got home from vacation.  I had downloaded most of my pictures onto my computer and was just sorting through them.  It was a quiet sort of day and we really didn't do much so this was the most interesting part!  Also, this really is a hallmark of the digital age.  No longer do we print and look at pictures, now we must download and sort...I still haven't decided which I actually prefer!

Day 157 (June 6):
Jason insisted that I take a picture of this because he apparently used to do the same thing.  I think it was quiet time (or maybe bedtime, I'm not sure) and Xander told me that he had to park his cars first.  Fine, I didn't really care.  When I went to look afterwards, he had lined them all up in a giant row along the carpet edge!  It was very cute.

Day 158 (June 7):
My parents were in town when we got back from vacation.  Well, they were actually out of town but coming back the next day for a conference.  So, we got to spend some time with them on the Saturday and Sunday.  I really like this picture of Evan helping Grandma cut up apples for an apple crisp.  I think it's cute!  This was also Evan's bad day.  He fell from the top of the basement stairs (luckily, they're carpeted) and later on that same day fell off the couch (while he was just sitting there) and then stubbed his toe on our metal coffee table.  He got pretty confident doing stairs while we were on vacation because the children's museums all had half sized stairs.  I think he tried to do ours the same way and, unfortunately, he's not stable enough for that.  But, all's well that end well and he was fine!

Day 159 (June 8):
This is the rice we had for supper.  We often buy Uncle Ben's Fast and Fancy rice to keep in the pantry for a quick needs side dish.  Well, Xander likes to pick out which one we'll have for supper.  Sometimes it's easier to get him to eat it if he's picked it out!  This would be what we ate that night.

Day 160 (June 9):
Here's Evan being cute.  If he wants something or if you ask him if he's being cute, he'll look at you and give you a big smile with his eyes closed!  It's really pretty sweet.

Day 161 (June 10):
The boys were having baths and Jason gave Evan a curl mohawk on the top of his head.  Xander had to have one, too, so Jason gave him a mohawk.  With his hair as long as it was, it sure was a crazy look!

Day 162 (June 11):
This was our Thursday morning Mom's Group wind up play date.  We went to the park with the kids and everyone brought snacks and food to share.  It was fun to some extent.  The kids had a good time.  However, I've realized that with kids my age, going to the park is more for them to play than me to visit.  It's really hard to hold a conversation when you're trying to keep an eye on them and they can't do all the play stuff by themselves.  Still, we had fun and they did even play together for a bit.  The planes flying over head were the biggest hit, though!

Day 163 (June 12):
The next day, we went for a walk down to the church as they finally got the building permit so they could start demolition.  There were no big machines for the boys to watch but Xander still had fun watching them tear off boards and throw them down onto the ground.  It sure didn't take long for them to get started and make some significant progress!

Day 164 (June 13):
Here is proof that my boys can play nicely together.  Sometimes, it's easy to forget that they do play together and well.  I have found that when the parents stay away, they seem to get along better and solve their own problems.  I was very happy to see this, though!

Well, that's a little better than a week's worth of pictures so hopefully I'll be able to get back sometime in the next few days to do another chunk.  I've actually been taking quite a few pictures lately, playing around and such stuff so I have a ton to organize, too.  Summer always seems to be so busy and then it just flies by.  In two more weeks we start swimming lessons and the brother and his family will be in town.  There's a football game to attend in two weeks and a new floor to install shortly after that!  By then, we're almost in the middle of August.  Crazy.

Until next time...