Hearts, Flowers and Pearls Oh My!

I had another weekend challenge for myself to get two layouts completed (the other one will be for tomorrow's Monday Challenge). Our plan for this upcoming weekend is to take Monday off, and head out camping - so I want to have all my layouts done; that way when I get home, I can scrap the trip. Now, I only have two more pages left to finish - still the one from our New Years celebration, and a second about my birthday. I'm hoping to get at least one of these done this week, before we leave.

I had a brilliant idea last year: to take a self portrait of Justin and I every Friday from August 21 2009 until the same date in 2010 - our wedding. It got to be a bit overbearing, so we stopped that (I try not to be upset that this didn't work out). Then, when the six month mark came around, I decided once a month wouldn't be so bad; so every month, on the 21st I'm determined to take a photo of the two of us. Last Wednesday, I was at my desk at work when I realized it was only four months until our wedding. I got a little bit emotional, and cried a tear or two; I can't believe how fast it's come, and how soon that day will be here. Late that night, I remembered to take the picture, so there we were, sitting in bed talking about how our day had been. Click!

Journalling says: watching Lost on DVD; laying in bed talking about our day; digging trenches for gas/elecricity to garage - and making 2 trips to Walmart to buy shovels; our relaxation right now. 4 months 'til wedding.

More stitching (second time I've attempted this). I'm not nearly as happy this time as last time, but I'm still learning!

I really loved these flowers that Elizabeth Kartchner did on this page when I saw them originally. She made a video tutorial on how she made them. It's really simple, would have been even easier with a glue gun (don't have one). And, I've been wanting to make a tissue paper flower for a long time too (punched same sized circles from lots of layers of tissue paper, stacked them on top of one another, and sewed a button to the center). This was as good a place as any! I'm always on the look out for new ways I can add dimention to my pages. I'm not a big fan of "flat" layouts!

This layout is a pretty girly one (the flowers, the pearls used as bullet points in my journalling, the stamped embossed doily); the colours add to that "relaxed" vibe I was going for. I new making the photo black and white would allow me to use whatever colours I wanted (the top I was wearing is a very bright pink); this way the paper colours didn't compete with the photo colours.

What have you been working on this weekend?

Twice The Story

Originally when I started to think about designing this layout, I wanted a lot of journalling. The journalling is much more impressive than the photos are in conveying the story. When I went to scrap, I had something else I wanted to say too, something from a Canadian Tire commercial; something I said that day. The tone of that thought, and the "story" journalling were completely different (although I could have made it work). I've been thinking about using my calendar stamp as a journalling block (I saw this done somewhere, but can't remember where exactly). I thought this page would be a good place to use this technique, and to have the more casual writing there.

I used all sorts of products on this page: the big cream coloured paper and the striped paper are both scraps. The brown polk-a-dot sticker and red eyelet sticker are both from a Valentine's/love Making Memories sticker pack. It's nice to know that products can be used not for their intended purpose. (I've seemed to be stamping on all my layouts lately. It's good; I have a lot of stamps that I've never used on pages!)

When I stamped the calendar onto the page the days of the week didn't show up clearly (notice that part of the grid also didn't stamp properly). I got a little bit upset for a couple seconds (possibly minutes!), then thought of re-stamping it on another paper, and putting that on top of the image on the paper. I used the back of the striped paper for this, which coordinated perfectly (using up more of my scraps).

The journalling says: (in the calendar stamp) Wednesday April 14 for days like today we wish we had a generator. We would have been in the trailer all day watching DVD's! (on the transparency) Wet, heavy snow fell hard, blanketing most of Southern Alberta, knocking out the power to most of the city. Justin and I were sent home from work shortly after getting there (Justin was only at work ten minutes, and I was there for about an hour and a half). After being at home for an hour we stopped by mum's work, picked her up (dad drove her to work because of the road conditions) and went over to their house - most of the West side had power. We filled the Blazer up with gas; the station was rumored to be the only on with both gas and electricity. The lineup was incredible; it took close to 45 minutes. Mum made us a familiar lunch - Lipton's chicken noodle soup, baking soda bisquits and honey butter (it made me happy and made me think of coming home for lunch in elementary). When we got back to our house at about four, our power was back on. From what we can tell, our power came back on at noon. Even with living in Ontario, and with winters that used to involve a lot more snow, this was our first "snow day"!

Just goes to show, sometimes you just need to have another look at your stash, and see it in a different way. Also, it was pretty weird to be scrapbooking a page about snow, when it was about 25 degrees outside. I finished this layout on Tuesday, less than a week since that snow day, and it was beautiful out!

Today Marks The Beginning

Today, the ground was ripped up at our house. Justin dug the trenches for the gas and electrical lines to go to the garage. He got off work shortly after lunch to start the process with the ditch witch; when I got home it involved a couple trips to Walmart to get shovels to be able to dig out the dirt that had sunk back into the holes. (The ground is almost completely dried up from our freak snowstorm last Wednesday. It was 17 degrees on the weekend, and a beautiful temperature of 25 today!)

I knew I wanted to revive our "$20 date night" earlier today (after an ordeal this morning with my keys not being in my purse and a frantic search, which ended once I called Justin to see if he'd seen them; naturally he put them in the misc box in our entryway closet - the only place I didn't look!), and began making date plans before lunch. My original concept was going to the cheap movie theatre to watch The Crazies, since Justin's been wanting to watch it for awhile. But, when he called to say that he was going to be working on the yard, I knew that idea wouldn't work. So on the way home I stopped at Tim Horton's to buy a couple iced caps (every year when the weather warms up, I start my next addiction to these yummy drinks; I'd already had one at lunch that a friend dropped off to me! If I can't sleep tonight I only have myself to blame.).

Justin was working away when I surprised him with the drink.

During one of my trips out, I picked up a delicious (although not healthy) supper from 7 Eleven of potatoe wedges, chicken strips, chicken wings and chicken on a stick.

I had only 27 cents after all was said and done tonight from the twenty dollars. I'll count that as a successful date!

Lost

Seriously, watching a TV show on DVD can be a really bad thing. There's no commercial breaks to give you time to get up and move, you get really into the show and forget there's a life outside that black box. I'm pretty sure it can be dangerous! We borrowed seasons one and two of Lost from Brittany and Sheldon while at their place yesterday (they've been raving about it for over a year now), and have begun watching it. I won't tell you about the show, you just have to watch it, from the beginning to understand it. But please, pause it and get up and move every now and then.

I was laying down in bed, ready to start shutting my brain down for the night (lately it seems this is a process), when I realized I still needed to get the Monday Challenge blogged. So, here I am.

On your next layout: use at least eight photos on a single layout.

I wasn't able to get all three of the layouts scrapped that I had as a goal for this weekend. I only managed two. (Other one here). This layout uses almost in entirity all new products (the rubons and yellow rick rack are the only exceptions), which I bought Friday night when Justin was working late. I had thought "use three new products" would make for a great challenge, but while making the layout, my challenge continuously was how to get so many photos on one page. I was thinking about omitting a couple photos, but really wanted to use them all; they all added to the story. Finally when I came back to the page for about the third time I figured out something I liked, incorporating all pictures.


Journalling says: Some thought we were a bit crazy, but we'd been waiting all winter to get out at it again. Being in our new trailer (that we picked up that day) made it even better!

Be sure to leave a comment, with a link to your page using the challenge. For now, goodnight!

Our Weekend Spontaneity

Thursday night we went to Boston Pizza (yes we just went there for my birthday), and enjoyed a nice supper out. While there, we discussed what our plans were going to be for the weekend. Justin had to work Saturday so we couldn't plan anything too extravagant. When asked what I wanted to do, I suggested helping my uncle (my dad, my cousins husband and some of his friends) with re-shingling the roof of his house. Justin figured they'd be done by the time he'd get home from work Saturday.

Somehow the topic of visiting my cousin (and Maid of Honor) Brittany came up; her and her boyfriend Sheldon live about two hours away. We've been meaning to get to see them and their condo for some time now (she/they've come down numerous times for wedding planning). We texted both of them to see what their plans for Saturday night were. They were having some friends over, but we were more than welcome to go.

Now, this is very "untypical" Justin behaviour. He NEVER wants to go away for just one night; always thinks it's a waste. I couldn't believe him when he wanted to go Saturday night, and come back home around noon on Sunday. I suppose he wanted to see them, their place and get out of town just bad enough.

I pulled the suitcase out, put it on the bed to start packing my clothes, and our cat Lowie decided he wanted to nap in it. He knew something was up, and wasn't happy about it!

Thankfully Justin got done work an hour earlier than he thought, and we were able to get going an hour sooner than we originally planned. My Brittany couldn't believe we got to their place as early as we did, and was pretty happy!

It is unbelievable how much Brittany is like her mum! She had so many snackies (as our family calls them) out on the table, and more warming up in the oven. Let's just say we were well fed! There was our tour, which always involves a "toast to [insert rooms name here]" with a cocktail!

This is the only drink we've been able to "float" (having one liquid be ontop of the other) - and it was not planned. I was so atonished when Brittany brought me this, I had to take a picture.

Our crazy photo session from the kitchen. This was getting pretty late into the night.

After their friends left, Sheldon and I danced by the speakers.

Some were hurting Sunday morning:

It's kind of weird to stay at someone's place, when it takes you back in time. Although Justin and I never had an appartment, he did live in a duplex. Being in a small home, with little amounts of furniture - because they're just starting out - is how our lives were. Now, we have a beautiful new house; this took us back to another time. Here's some photos of stuff that I loved.

It was nice to get away for the night, but let me tell you, it was sure nice coming home. Leaving the big city, feeling safer, having more space and less traffic. We've been talking lots lately about never wanting to move from our city. It's got everything we need, why would we want to; this trip just solidified those thoughts.

Dear Lizzy

I have a running list of pages that I want to complete, and slowly I'm crossing them off. (This weekend I plan on getting at least three done - including the one I just finished: that means two more to go!) It makes me happy to see progress; already this year I've created more layouts than I did last year, and we're no where near the end! I'm also trying to stay current, I have only one (thanks to the last Monday Challenge) layout that I need to finish from a few months ago - from our New Years celebration.

This layout, one of my 25th birthday, started coming together Monday. It was almost finished that night, I just needed to print my journalling and get a 4x6 printed. With my three layout goal in mind, I printed my journalling at work (shhh!) and stopped by Walmart on my way home and printed off my photo. Quickly I finished the layout when I got home.

Journalling says: My 25th - scrapbooking tool, book and container; potluck I organized at work; 25 perfect roses (same kind as when Justin proposed); dinner at BP's and a complimentary dish of ice cream; cards and lots of money; a fantastic cake; a scrapbook cart; spending time with family - the perfect day!

Again, I love that Tickled Spring kit I put together. (I'm mostly done my May kit, and have a beginning on the June kit too). I'm very happy my local scrap store had the Dear Lizzy line when I was putting the April kit together; the patterns are just too pretty, and worked well with my pictures recently. I've never been so excited about a release before; I diligently follow Elizabeth Kartchner's blog, and snoop at every site for a glimpes of the product line (especially the American Crafts blog)!

Seriously, the fabric papers make me so happy. They are the stickiest things I've ever used. The only problem (which isn't a problem since I have a solution) is the fact that my glue squares don't stick to the top of them - but I just use glue.

Hope this gives you a jolt of spring inspiration! What layouts are you working on?

Snow Day

WOW! This morning at about 4am we woke up to the sound of the smoke detector beep. I laid in bed for a few minutes wondering what was happening. Justin rolled over, and the alarm clock caught his attention, blinking 12:07. He told me the power went out (we've almost lived in our house for a year, and the power has never gone out). He went downstairs, and the stove clock said 2:14. We figure the power went out at that time, and came back on two hour later.

We went back to sleep, after setting my phone alarm - just in case. We woke up when the regular alarm went off at 7. Justin looked outside and noticed the amount of snow on the roof of the trailer. He was a bit worried about the weight on the roof, but let it go, reasoning it would melt soon. I said I didn't want to drive to work, and laid in bed while he showered, waiting for my turn. While Justin was in the shower, the power went off again. He said he lost water pressure too. We both wondered what would happen at work; both our jobs are at a stand still without power.

He phoned, and I texted people that were already at work. Neither place had power. We reasoned we'd both be sent home shortly after arriving at work. Justin dropped me off, and said he'd call when he knew what was happening at his work. He was there about ten minutes and called me. My boss had left, so I couldn't go until everyone went home (my job is a pivotal part of the company). We were all just waiting at work for another boss to say to go home. My boss came back a half hour later, with a generator. After realizing it wasn't going to help out too much, he hooked up the coffee maker to it. Eventually we were told to go home too, but to come back if power was back up and running, and Justin came back to take me home.

We were at home, without power, talking/texting on our cell phones. Finding who had power and who didn't. We decided to head out to my mums work; we showed up just in time, they were just told to go home and she hadn't driven. We dropper her off on the other side of town (a side that still had power) and went to a gas station to fill up the Blazer. When we got back to my parents house, mum had lunch ready to go for us. (Lipton's chicken noodle soup, baking soda biscuits and honey butter - it took me back to my childhood and was the perfect meal for such a yucky day)!

Now, six hours after the power went off, there's many rumors going around. Justin's boss had called a city worker, and was told power would be off 6-8 hours. My boss had heard 4-6 hours. The radio said workers from 6+ hours away are coming to help with the outage; apparently the power line coming into town is not working! At the gas station, a guy said he'd heard the estimation was 24 hours before power was back up and running. I guess we'll see as it happens.

What I'm thankful for: a full tank of gas in one vehicle, power at my parents house (where I'm writing this), and a fireplace that works at our house! Here's some pictures:

The road going to work this morning. The snow is so wet and heavy.

Our house, our walkway and the view from across the street. (Above photo is this same view).

On the way to my parents house, after picking mum up from work.

Hope everyone else is dry and warm out there!

(Edited To Add: We're back at home now, from what the clocks are telling us, our power came back at about the same time I wrote this post - over three and a half hours ago.)

No More Procrastination

Well, it's Monday again. Preceding Monday is the weekend; let's recap that for a second. We had friends over Friday night, and had a few cocktails. Halfway through my second drink I started getting a stomach ache. I held it together, took a handful of Tums and enjoyed the rest of the night sans a drink (except for a can of ginger ale). Saturday we got a few things done around the house: we loaded up the trailer, I did some laundry, went to Walmart and printed off some more pictures, re-watched the first episode of What About Brian (have that on DVD),Justin went out to a friends going-away party and we enjoyed super of McDonald's, that he picked up on his way home, in bed!

Yesterday was a perfect Sunday: got up at 9:10 (Justin had already gotten up, cleaned up my McDonald's cup, gone on the internet, and come back to bed - I didn't hear anything), and layed in bed for awhile. Scooted over to Justin's side of the bed (he still had his side of the heating blanket on high) and had a nap for an hour at 10:30. Justin finished organizing the trailer, took some things to a dumpster, and I cleaned the bathroom. While he was out, he picked up two movies at Blockbuster: Brothers and Boondock Saints Two: All Saints Day. So we watched them. (Brothers is an AMAZING movie; it's hard to believe there a so many people out there whose life is just like that; made us very greatful for the life we have). I made supper last night: chicken breast, shrimp, asparagus, roasted potatoes and bearnaise sauce - yummy!

Now back to today and our Monday challenge:

On your next layout: go back and finish what you started. Pull out that layout that's waiting to be completed, stop procastinating and do whatever you have to in order to get it done!

My layout is one that I started a couple months ago; the photos are from our last "bridal party get-together." My procrastination was the photostrip: I had made one with edited photos; when I got it printed the skin colours were all wrong (mostly orange). I decided this challenge was something that would help me get this layout done, once and for all! I'm still not completely happy with how the new photostrip is, but I know it's not going to be able to be any better, so it's now on the page.


Journalling says: margaritas, friends and flower leis - all we need now is the sunshine!

As always, be sure to leave a comment, with a link to your page using the challenge.