Some other pages (Mom that picture is in here)...

OK, I keep saying I'll do more posts and that I was going to schedule this but by the time I got to posting my last post, I'd forgotten. It's late and I should go but I'm going to put this up. Things have been busy, getting used to the new kindergarten routine and care groups starting back up and FaithBuilders (kids club at church) starting again...we have to find the new groove. It's so weird how it feels like I have so much less time with school on. I guess it's just because I now have times that I HAVE to be home, otherwise, I'll miss Xander's bus. Xander is having fun at school and learning lots so that is awesome!

My exciting scrapping news is that I'm now a ScrapMatters Girl!! A new forum I've been hanging out at, ScrapMatters, has a team of us that encourage people with compliments on their work, police the gallery and things like that. We get "paid" with scrapping stuff and the amazing inspiration we get from looking at everybody's work. I've learned so much and gotten so many ideas already and am loving the fun chatter we get to have in our forums!

Out house renos are finally coming along, too. The roof was re-shingled Friday and the deck is well -formed...it just needs the top! The roofers came Thursday to prep - drop off shingles, put them where they'd need them, get the ladders set up etc. But, it only took them Friday (and not even all of it) to do the actual shingling. It was very impressive. I thought we'd be without the satellite dish for a couple days but it turned out to be more like a couple hours! We were very pleased and we really like the new shingles. Now, I'm just super excited for the deck to be done!

Here are some other pages I've done recently.

This picture was for a photo challenge to try to emphasize the eyes. I really like how the photo turned out! The layout might be a little girlie but I just loved the cute little flowers!

Kit - Forget-Me-Not by Andilynn Designs

This was for a ScrapMatters Girl speed scrap (or chat and scrap later :) ). I love how it turned out!

Kit - True Blessings by LDrag Designs

Brown, Green & Music papers, sparkles - Into the Night by Stolen Moments

Template - Scraps by Number B.L.O.C.K.E.D. by Stolen Moments

This was a kit I won and I love the colours. I simply adore this photo of Rene and Jonathan!

Kit - Modish by geniaBeana Scraps

Template by Connie Prince Digital Scrapbook Designs

OK Mom - this is it...the photo I was telling you about. I totally LOVE this photo of Xander at the beach! I didn't even do very much editing on it - just a little lightening!

Kit - Vintage Summer by WM[Sqaured] Designs

Background Paper - Wynken, Blynken & Nod by Stolen Moments and Scraps by Jenn

Alpha - Modish Acrylic Alpha by geniaBeana Scraps

Date Element - Simply Dated v8 by WM[Squared] Designs

OK - so now you're sort of up to date. I may type more in a bit and we have some fabulous family photos that I will post at some point in time! I am actually thinking of starting up a second blog for all my photos and talking and just leaving this as a scrap blog to post kits and pages on...I haven't decided for sure but we'll see how that goes!

Until next time...

Yesterday...

OK, OK...I'm late with this kit again but I promise it really is a beautiful kit! Scraps of Ellay has a new kit out this week called Yesterday. It's a really pretty heritage kit and I had a lot of fun playing with it!! It's still on sale for 25% off at Stuff to Scrap for the rest of this week. Here are a couple of layouts I've done with it and the preview of the kit...

The boys and I, Mother's Day 2009:

This is for you, Mom! My Mom and her sisters...circa 1976ish, I think? Isn't it a cute photo?
And here is the preview of the entire kit...

We've been settling in to our new routine and I haven't quite got everything down yet but I promise I'll post some updates and other pages tomorrow! (In fact, I'll go schedule the post right now!)

Until next time...

Child's Play Revamped

Hi all. Just a quick post (see Colette, told you I'd post)! Scraps of Ellay has a new kit out this week (well, a new old kit!!) This is a revamp of her Child's Play kit. I just love the bright colours! It's such a fun kit for all those kid pictures and it's available at Stuff to Scrap. Here are the two pages I did with it and the full preview! It's on sale this week so hurry over and snag it!

This one uses some snowflake brushes by hawksmont. I love how this turned out for a winter page!

This uses a template by Man in the Moon Designs...my poor, accident prone little Evan!

And the full kit...

It's late now! Off to bed or something like that!

Until next time...

Asian Beauty...FINALLY!

OK...I am so late posting this kit. Hopefully I'll be forgiven! It was a busy week with kindergarten starting and swimming lessons and plans for the long weekend! Kindergarten is going well, so far. Xander seems to be really enjoying it, though insists he'll be talking "normal" (he's in French immersion). The bus is going well so far so that's good, too. He's growing up so fast, it's hard to believe. He keeps surprising me with new things that he'll do...all by himself! Swimming lessons also started well...we'll see how they progress.

The long weekend was good, too, though I now know why I'm not a camper - it's WAY too much work to get ready for just a couple days! We went up to northern SK to spend the weekend at the lake with my family. All the kids (but not quite all the in-laws) were there for a brief period of time, anyway. It was a gorgeous day on Saturday and (due to a forgetful Mom) we got a bit sunburned. It wasn't that hot so I didn't think to put on suntan lotion. The kids also went mini-golfing and we had a bit of a campfire. It wasn't as nice the rest of the weekend. It rained Sunday morning but we did get in our bonfire with wieners and s'mores so that was good! The kids also went off to play in the bush and it was fun to see them do that. I remember how much fun I had in the bush! My one niece got sick so she and her Mom stayed in town Sunday night. It rained hard Monday but we checked out that day, anyway. We made it home (somewhat tired but glad to be home). Now it's back to the routine and school again!

Now for the kit. Scrap of Ellay had a new kit out last week that I never got around to blogging about (due to the above). It's actually a collab with Misty O'Brien scraps and is a beautiful Asian-themed kit called Asian Beauty. It's available at Stuff to Scrap here. You can do so much more than just Asian themed pages with this. Here are the two I did...followed by the kit preview!

Well, I think that's all I have for now.

Until next time...

The Big Day!!

Well, tomorrow is it...it's the big day...kindergarten!! I can't believe it's here. In some ways it seems to have snuck up on me but Xander's gotten so big that it really is time! I have mixed emotions...I'm not ready for it but I loved school and hope he will, too. I scrapped this page last week. I did it for a challenge on blending but it seemed so appropriate with the baby fading into the background and the little boy now the focus. I just love how it turned out, too, I've been trying to refine my pages and this one actually turned out almost how I envisioned!

Kit - A Time to Learn by Stolen Moments

Word Art by Scraps 'n Pieces

Date Stamp - The Only Date Stamps You'll Ever Need by Stolen Moments

This is what the journalling says, if you're curious:

You have made life an adventure for us all. The first born child is such a new and different thing that there is no way to describe it but as a daring adventure. It seems like you have been ours for forever and yet for such a short time. You are now 4 1/2...almost 5, really and you are about to go off to kindergarten. You are so excited but I'm not so sure that I'm ready to be sending you off so soon! I know you will do great and this will just lead to so many more daring adventures in both your life and in ours!

I also made this page this week and I think it is super cute! It was for a speed scrap over at Stuff to Scrap - it seems like forever since I've speed scrapped and I've missed them!

Kit - Wynken, Blynken & Nod by Stolen Moments and Scraps by Jenn

Last but definitely not least...today is another big day because it is my husband's birthday! We had an evening with his family and he got to play some of the fun games he got (or had previously). Despite the rest of my post, I'm not so good with the sappy stuff so just suffice it to say that I love you Jason and I'm glad that I'm the one who gets to celebrate all your birthdays with you!

I'll sign off now but I'll be back tomorrow with another new kit and some layouts (and hopefully good news of the first day!!)

Until next time...

Girls' Night Out!??

Curious? No, I did not have a girls' night out...I don't remember the last time I had one of those! It's a new kit from Scraps of Ellay called Happy Hour (available at Stuff to Scrap)! It's a kit full of really pretty colours and elements great for scrapping, well, girls' nights out. Since I don't have picture of anything like that, I did manage to find other uses for it! I dug out some old negatives from a trip to Hawai'i I took back in 2000 with a friend of mine. Once I finally found them, I scanned them in and then edited them to finally come up with these layouts! It took me longer than I thought but I think the pages are really fun! This'll be a two page layout when I finally do up this book. Here they are (the first uses a template from Trixie Scraps):

Here's a look at the full preview (Ellay may also have a freebie on her blog later this week - you can check it out here):

Now, we'll say that I'm done posting because I'm quite tired tonight!! We started VBS this week at our church and I'm in charge of registration. We had just under 250 kids this week so it was absolutely crazy (in a good sort of way)!! Xander got to go for the first time and he had a blast. At one point in time, he saw me standing by the door and instead of a "hi" I got "why are you standin' there Mom?" He was quite suspicious that I had come to pick him up before it was all over! Most certainly not! Anyway, four more days to go!

Until next time...

Whew! We're done for now...

Well, I have a couple of pages that I've scrapped just for fun that I want to show you so I thought I'd post. I'm also looking for validation as I showed my husband the lighthouse page (you'll see it soon) and asked him if it was pretty. His comment..."It's a picture, with words below it." I think it's better than that! That's what I get for asking a computer geek who's in the middle of a video game ;).

I am exhausted though. We've just finished the two weeks of swimming lessons (which usually included 30 to 60 minutes of play in the park). I had to go in the water with Evan and that was really tiring. They kids really enjoyed it. Xander didn't pass his level so I think we'll try again in the fall. We had some talks about the level of effort he put in but I think it was too little, too late. I didn't know we needed to until the second week, as I was in the water and unable to actually watch his lesson. He has made really good progress, though, and just has a couple more things he needs to work on. He wants to be in the same level as his cousin next summer, though, so we'll have to see what we can do (she's a bit of a fish). Evan's levels are solely based on age so as long as he's old enough, he can pass. They are really tired, though. It's good to have this break because it got us out and active a bit more. There was barely any TV these past two weeks and they hardly even objected for nap time! Evan does have a giant bump where he slipped and hit his head on the tile floor but he seems to have recovered. Now we have a week off before VBS starts up at church and another crazy week begins!

I'm really actually supposed to be cleaning so I'll just post those pictures already and get going!

This is a bunch of Jonathan smiling - he really is an easy baby and is such a good smiler...though we have pictures tomorrow so he probably won't smile at all! ;)

Kit - So Big! by Man in the Moon Designs

Leaves - Easter Morning by Man in the Moon Designs and Stolen Moments

Template by YB Designs

This is the lighthouse one...it's from my trip to Hawaii back in 2000.

Kit - Coastal Getaway by Scrap Matters Design Team

Well, I really should get back to the work I should be doing!

Until next time...