Butterfly Baby

With all the blog posts about CHA Winter 2011, I've been super inspired to scrapbook lately. (I managed to get two layouts done this weekend). I've seen so much on blogs that I follow, that it almost feels like I was there (although I'm sure it's like Vegas - the only way to understand it is to experience it).

On your next layout: use inspiration from CHA that you saw on a blog post (or if you were lucky enough to go, actually from the show).

When I saw this photo from Paige's blog , I knew that I wanted to do something like that on a layout. I stopped at Walmart the night I saw it, and bought two Martha Stewart punches (classic butterfly and monarch butterfly). I knew this would be the inspiration for a layout I had in mind for Stevie. I had also seen this layout on Maggie Holmes' blog and really liked the placement, and the ribbon separating a same-sized photo and patterned paper. I took all of that, and made this layout.

I wanted this layout to be a classy baby page. Not all cutsie and bubble gum coloured. I think I accomplished that. I really like the yellow colour of the background paper, and the fancy pattern of it, it helped make the page not scream "pink." For my title, I really didn't want to use black. I really like the light feel to the layout without any dark, harsh colours on it. I looked through my stash and used these aqua coloured Thickers. Because I used this colour, I added a peice of ribbon layered on top of the pink ribbon. I like how it too added another colour that evened out the pinkness. And I inked the "adore" tab on the left side of the page to add another aqua element to the page.

It was because I happened to look over at my little muffin tin of odds and ends that I remembered these cute little ducky buttons. These buttons have the shank on them, so I made a hole big enough for it to fit through, and put a straight pin through the shank on the back of the page keeping it in place.

I started this page with punching out all my butterflies. I used up some of my scrap paper (which is a goal I'm working on), using just three different patterns. I used my Tombow Mono liquid glue on the back of the butterflies, allowed that to dry, making them re-positionable (and saving my sanity). I laid them out numerous times, re-arranging the elements on the page (at one point the photo was on the left side), until I was finally happy. I really like that this is now another embellishment I can add to my pages to be able to easily add dimention.

It's the little bits of girliness on this layout that I really love. I like these two pins that I stuck into the ribbon, just to add a little bit of surprise. And the three brads (in the row with the duck button), help add to that classy feel I wanted the page to have. (I've used up almost all of these brads, I need to run out and get another pack from Michael's). And the pink lace paper at the bottom add to it too; I still have some of this sheet left, and when it's done I'm going to count how many layouts I've used it on - it is a go-to paper for me. This time I used a spray ink to turn it this perfect pretty pink.

Journaling says: Andrew and Tracy Borg's beautiful daughter at 15 weeks.

This is the first "baby" layout I've ever done. To be honest, I've always wondered if I could do it. After this accomplishment, I now know I can when Justin and I have little kiddos of our own for me to scrapbook their cute little selves. And now I secretly hope to have girls when it's time - I'm loving little girly bits on my pages lately!

What did you find from CHA that you found so inspiring it got your imagination running wild? Leave a comment with a link to what you created from your inspiration.

From 40 To 208

Friday night we went bowling to celebrate Chelsey's birthday.

Honestly, before I left work that night, I was complaining because I had no desire to go play five-pin. I've only been once before, and my brand new shoes actually got stolen. I was not a happy camper that day! I tried to put it all behind me though, took my shoes to our lane with me, had a couple beers and enjoyed myself.

Every single time I go bowling my left hip starts hurting. Normally it's after the first game, but this time it started after the first couple times I bowled. It's really all I could think about each time I bowled, and it was making me upset! Both the parents (both Josh and Chelsey's) and the boys were doing a lot better than we were doing; I point blank said that no offense to the parents, but obviously they are older, and have had more time to hone their bowling skills, and the boys can just plain and simple throw harder than us girls! The first game my score was 40; Kayla (Josh's cousin) was very excited that she beat me - she got 47.

I was either always bowling beside Justin, or beside Lincoln. When Justin bowled at the same time as I did, he bet me five bucks that I couldn't knock down more balls than he could. I'm pretty sure I owe him about twenty dollars - but it comes out of his account too, so we'll call it good!

There were only two different ball colour choices (this is something I really miss about ten-pin), either a A&W/black swirled ball or a white/pink/teal/black swirled ball. I only wanted to bowl with the pretty one, but when I was up against Lincoln, he tried to steal them as they came back down the lane in the ball return shoot thing. I got smart at one point, and tried to get it first, but it still slipped past my hands - it was coming towards me at a very rapid speed!

A couple frames into our second game (after Chelsey had gone to ask if they could put the bumbers up for us - and subsequently being told that we are adults, and we could break them), Chelsey suggested I start granny bowling; you know, bending over and tossing the ball from between your legs.

The first time I tried this new method, I got a spare. The second time I got a strike! WHAT? Seriously, is this how I'm actually good at bowling? It was so funny, I got three strikes in a row. And my score for the second games was 208!

Such a fun night - and something different. I've been begging Justin to go bowling with me for five and a half years, and I finally got to. Hopefully I can get him to go again, maybe for a $20 date night!?

Stevie-Dawn

For the last few weeks friends of ours from Australia have been here spending time with their family that live here in Canada. (Tracy is Canadian, and Andrew is Australian.) They went to Manatoba to meet up with their friends before they headed down to Mexico for that friends wedding. Finally they were back in town, and we met up with them for supper on Tuesday night (along with another couple, Dave and Allison).

We finally got to meet Princess Stevie. She is seriously SO cute! It made me want my own, very badly (I know we have some goals we want to accomplish before this step happens though)! She is just so soft, warm and cuddly. I made Justin hold her, and he seemed quite comfortable, not scared or nervous like I kind of expected him to be like. Lately, he's been mentioning little things that make me know having children is one of his next priorities. Brings a smile to my face.

Stevie was ready for sleep when we first got to Moxie's, but I think she got a little excited with being passed from person to person, and forgot for a bit about being tired. Then she got a bit cranky, and was fussing. Allison was holding her as Stevie was crying, and announced "yup, there's a baby over here," to the restaurant. Andrew then said (just to our table), it would be different if one of us adults were carrying on like that. People just need to understand that babies don't know any different, it's part of what they do, and sometimes there is no comforting them.

We got Stevie a little gift: a fuscia Carhartt jumper, white shirt, pink Carhartt baseball cap, and little booties that are sheep skin lined. We know she won't get much use out of them (living in Australia and all), but they're just too cute to pass up! Justin picked out everything completely on his own. When he picked me up at work, he was so delighted about his find. I told him I knew he was going to be a good daddy, and this just cinched that thought! I made a cute little card with a hippo on it, that matched the fuchia of the dress perfectly - and we hadn't talked about what either of us had done.

I can't wait to become a mum, and see how Justin takes to his role as a dad. I know that when the time is right, in a couple years, that it will be perfect. Until then, I'm happy just seeing tiny babies, and getting to visit with my little cousins!

2 February Goals 2011

I decided a couple weeks ago what my two goals would be for this month. I seem to be thinking along the theme of improving upon myself and my life; which I actually want to continue for the rest of the year.

1. Go on a $20 date once a week. I'll plan them, decide what we'll do, and Justin can just go along for the ride! With four weeks, I want to see the different kinds of things we can do and creative I can be for just twenty dollars. (These photos are from March 15, 2008; we went for a drive to see whereabouts we'd be camping in May. Whenever we want to go for a drive, it seems we always head out along Highway 22, and the Porkupine Hills. It all started in 2005 on one of our first dates, and it just so happened it that we were married in that area, just off that highway. While I was looking at old photos on the computer a couple months ago, I realized that I had taken a picture of the ranch sign when we were on this drive - way before we knew it was Brent's brother and sister-in-law that owned the ranch, and way before we seriously started planning our wedding! I still remember my dad, while we were sitting and waiting for the JP, saying that it was the perfect location; he couldn't imagine us getting married anywhere else and I couldn't either. Justin looks so young, and you can really see how much weight he's lost. I really hate my glasses, they just seem too small for my head!)

2. Exercise, and do crunches video (I have an app on my phone) four times a week. "Exercise" will consist of my Leslie Sansome DVDs, skating, aquafit, or dance nights of an hour or more (basically me dancing like a fool in front of the computer listening to random You Tube music videos).

Now for January's update: 1/1 completed to what I see as successful. I admit, I could have been a lot better,(I kept track of the little bits of extra things I ate, including two that I decided wouldn't count: to celebrate New Years I had a chocolate cup with Kalua just after midnight, two fortune cookies, really small slivery bits of hard candy, bits of oatmeal with brown sugar, one peice of healthy fruit snacks, a box of Del Monte fruit twists, Reese cereal, two large frozen yogurts, sugary peach juice, and a couple glasses of regular pop), but I did way better than I ever thought I could do - it just goes to show what I can actually do (or not eat) when I actually put my mind to it; and a big thanks goes out to Justin for hiding the left-over wedding candy from me - it was the weekends while he was gone that were the hardest on me, and I know I would have indulged if I had known where the candy was!

Present Plans Will Succeed

Since I got my Samsung Galaxy S Captivate, I've been finding that I take a lot of photos of everyday stuff with it. And I won't lie, most of the pictures on my phone are of Lowie. But it makes it easy to take photos while we're out, I can quickly snap a picture discreatly with my phone (and it doesn't make a sound, so as not to draw attention). I got a Retro Camera app that creates funky results in the dark room, it just depends what "camera" you use to take the photos (and there is five to choose from, these photos were taken with the pinhole camera - I love that it looks like it's on film).

On your next layout: scrapbook pictures that you took with your phone.

This flower was the last thing that I did on the page. I was looking for something to add some dimention to the layout, and came accross this tulle. I had invisioned it coming out of a eyelet, and flowing accross to the other side of the page, but what I created isn't like that at all. I was hard to fit that amount of tulle through the hole in the eyelet; when it poked through to the front of the page, I liked the idea of making a flower at first (hiding the eyelet), and then still flowing off the layout. The flower took a little fiddling with, and some hand stitching to add a loop where the flower looked like it had a missing petal. I then kind of pulled it together with the buttons as it went off the page.

These chip board Thickers alphas started out as a really nice brown. But when I put them on the layout, they blended right in. I used some brown ink to stamp some script accross (this background stamp I have is a hand written letter), which didn't make them any more noticeable. That is when I attempted to white wash them with some paint. Finally they were brought to life, and noticeable. I really like that you can still see some of the original brown colour through them since after I brushed them with the white paint, I went back and sanded it off in spots.

Love the little French hints on this page too. This je t'aime stamp in the upper right corner, and the rendezvous that is part of the journaling rub-on (it's kind of hard to see). The layout has a French bistro or Paris feel to it that I really love. The background paper really helps add to that affect too (it's from the Basic Grey Curio line. The graphics are kind of dark, in a romantic love affair kind of way - don't know if that makes any sense! I love the shading around the edges, it's like it's been inked).

Journaling says: Knowing that Justin would be out of town working for the next eleven days, we went out for supper to The Cheesecake. January 6, 2011 (The fortune that I got from the cookie says: your present plans are going to succeed if you stick to them.)

What photos are on your phone? Print them off, and get scapping! Leave a comment with a link, and let's see what you've been snapping photos of with this fun alternative to a real camera.

Nicole's Bridal Shower

Nicole's aunt Sandra had called me a couple weeks ago to invite me to the shower. She gave me instructions to get to Grandma Betsy's house, and I diligently wrote it all down. For the life of me I couldn't find that paper! Every peice of paper that I come home with the past few weeks magically disappears (I know Justin's not throwing them out, it just seems I'm a bit scatterbrained lately and forget where I put things). I had to text Nicole earlier today and get directions, and make sure I knew what time it started at. I was a bit rushed, knowing that I didn't have time to go home, eat supper, wrap the presents (don't judge me!), and make it over to the other side of town. So after work, I headed in the direction of the party, and did all my stuff on that side of town.

I went to Edo since it seemed like a healthy choice, and was close to the dollar store to buy my wrapping paper. I asked for my food to go, just in case I couldn't eat it all (this is something I do all the time lately), and of course I got a tuna roll to go with my teryaki chicken! This is the first time ever that I have eaten somewhere (other than my vehicle and home) by myself, and it was kind of liberating! There was an older lady eating by herself on the other side of the restaurant while reading a book; it's funny how technology has changed, since I was on my cell Facebooking!Justin phoned while I was was there, we talked about random stuff for a bit, then he asked where I was. When I said eating supper at Edo, immediately he asked if I was alone, and found it odd for me to be doing this. (I did take this photo with my phone, didn't want strangers thinking I was weird: she's eating alone, and she took a photo of her meal!)

I then went to the dollar store to by the gift bags and tissue paper. I brought my card in, since I wanted it to match the bags, and had a hard time picking some out that I liked. I finally found some gold ones that I thought at least matched her colours (gold, orange, teal/aqua, black, and a sandy beige). When I got out to the Blazer to wrap it all up, two of my boxes were too wide, and didn't fit. Back into the store I went. I picked up another couple bags that were the same gold pattern, and thought I was set. Those same two boxes were still to wide for these new gift bags. Then I thought about wrapping them up with the tissue paper that I had. Back into the store to buy some tape. I told the guy at the till I hoped this would be the last time I was in! My gifts were wrapped, but not looking so pretty, but in one of my trips into the store I had bought some pretty bows - I slapped them onto the boxes, and called it good.

I got lost getting to Grandma Betsy's house, and had to make an emergency call to Nicole to help me out. She stood outside, guided my way, and waited for me to get there. As I was walking up to the house, with two boxes and a bag in my arms, I told her that I was blamming the wrapping job on Justin if anyone asked! As we were walking down the stairs into the basement, Nicole said Amanda was surprised that I hadn't asked for a ride. What? Amanda's here!? I didn't know she was coming, or I would have asked her for a ride!

I coined myself the "Brittany paparazzi," and got on picture taking duty. (Thank you Britt and Chels for all the pictures I have from my bridal shower!) Can you guess which of the presents is mine?

Sandra got the party going, saying that it was just a relaxed, low-key bridal shower with no games - just food, wine, and watching Nicole open the gifts. We did introductions as to how we know Nicole, then Linda (Nicole's mum) told us a bit about her as a baby (Grandma Betsey brought out a photo album). A couple aunts and some friends told cute stories. Then it was on to opening presents.

Megan (Nicole's sister and maid of honor) was supposed to be on duty of writing down who-brought-what-gift, but when Nicole started opening gifts, and Megan wasn't around, I reached for the book and got on it! Somehow I thought I was going to end up with this job.

And here is my lovely gift! (I do think that the bows hide a little bit of the nastiness of my tissue-paper wrap job!)

Nicole mentioned that Megan (and a few of their cousins) had wanted to go out afterwards. I got home, brushed my teeth, sprayed myself with a bit of my cologne, charged my phone for five minutes, and was out the door heading to Bos Hogs. I drove myself, I figured when I was ready to go, I didn't need to wait for anyone to get a ride home. I wasn't in a drinking mood, and wasn't up for much partying, and it tured out Nicole wasn't either. I remember she looked at her watch, said to me that we had been there for half an hour, it was time to find a way to sneak off. Which we managed to about twenty minutes later. We need to save ourselves for White Fish, which is just a couple weeks away, then off to Mexico three weeks later, then the reception will be two weeks after we get back. These couple months are going to go by fast, hope my camera can keep up!

Home Is Comfort

I always write on the back of my layouts. I right the date that it was completed, important info (where the picture was taken, the date it was taken, who is in the photo, how old they are) and some insight as to how it came to be. I don't ever know if I'll ever need to know any of the information that I write (although memories do fail over time, and it will be nice for future generations to be able to have this extra knowledge), or ever look at it down the road, but doing it gives me a sense of completion. This layouts insight started off with "let me first make a list of all the problems I had with this layout."

On your next layout: share the process. Let us in on the little secrets that made it to completion. What part of your creative process did you have to alter or change in order to get the layout done?

This layout started out as another half'-sleep thought. I invisioned layers of patterened paper circles on the left side of the layout held down by stitching. Kind of having a quilt feel to it. As I thought about it a little more, some of the circles were cut with decorative scissors (I'm really loving these lately).

My first problem started late one night (probably after midnight) when I first tried using my new sewing machine that my mum bought me for Christmas. It wouldn't seem to sew on the paper, the tension on the thread seemed to tight. I tried in vain for at least an hour, then finally gave up and went to sleep. The next morning I finally got it working; it was still gaving me grief, but was working okay. Then all of a sudden it stopped again, and at that point I gave up! I figured since this was my first attempt at sewing on a layout (and my first machine sewing session in at lease seven years), I was alright with only three rows of stitching.

There were four attempts at the journaling on this layout. The first time was horizontally accross the area above the photo; hated how that looked, there was to much heaviness with the big thick black pen that I used - I covered this section up with a paper that matched the original background. The second time involved strips of paper with my journalling, I decided to add demention to the layout, so I used pop dots to adhere the strips - I hated how that took away from much of the clean open space on the background, so I removed them all (in the process I tore a bit of the background paper, but was sneaky and very carefully glued it back down). I finally thought about doing my journaling vertically with my stamped lines - I loved how this looked, except I messed up a couple words (added an extra "s" to "was" and added an extra "to" in before talking about Lowie); I decided to use what I had learned in my pop dot experience and carefully cover up my mistakes - and it's hardly noticable! (See that third line down, the "have" is added onto one of those masks, which I believe is barely visable).

That line of redish-orange patterned paper on the right side of the layout, with the lace that is all held down with the pearl brads is only there? It's only there because of my first journaling mess-up (when I covered it up with a different paper)! I didn't like the seam that was left, so used a strip of the reverse side of the new background, but thought it didn't look right - felt too naked. So I was left searching for a textile that matched my page, and when I looked at some scraps of ribbon, I knew this lace was perfect. The brads were basically a method to hold the ribbon down more securely.

Journaling says: From the 7-16 Justin was out of town in High River running a job at Cargill. It was really hard on me to only have Lowie to come home to. When Justin came home a day early I cried realived tears of joy.

There you have it, if it weren't for all these little "mistakes", this layout wouldn't be what it is now. Most of the time we love things because of their flaws. Leave a comment with a link, and share with us what gave life to your design.

My Weekend List

I mentioned the list I started making when I found out Justin might be leaving for High River again last Wednesday. Well, I'm now going to do this each and every time that he's gone away. It seriously kept me motivated around the house, made me accomplish lots, and made my weekend enjoyable. Whenever I was wondering what I could do next when I felt bored, I looked at my list and picked something to do.

These are the things I could check off my list (all are bolded). I stopped to get a Booster Juice (with my fabulous gift card Sandy got me for Christmas), right after work on Friday. After my snack I headed over to Walmart to pick up ingredients for nachos. We all know that I had a couple drinks Friday night with the Kurtz's and Sipko's. While I was killing time on that side of town, before meeting up with them,I stopped at the scrapbooking store. I bought some paper (like I needed anymore!), some Thickers, and a couple mists. That night is when I was fighting with the sewing maching for this layout. I completed that layout Saturday morning in my pajamas. I made the nachos for a late lunch/super combo on Saturday while eating my nachos I watched Million Dollar Baby. Seriously, AMAZING movie, and in the end, really nothing at all to do with boxing! I completed another layout (about a date night we had before Justin left for the ten days) afterwards.

Sunday I got my butt in gear, cleaned up my scrapbooking room (and junked out a LOT of stuff in the closet in there). It hasn't been that clean in there... um ever! I didn't get all three of the bathrooms cleaned, but I did get our ensuite spic and span. I watched Super Troopers and washed all our bedding at the same time (with numerous pauses to swap over the loads) all while eating a big bowl of popcorn! Then, naturally after eating something salty and buttery, I wanted something that was sweet. Now, I can't have anything sweet for another eight days (I'm almost there!), but I had a really bad craving for frozen yogurt. After an hour of not being able to shake the feeling, I decided to head down to the movie theatre to get frozen yogurt; I think they put something addictive in that - it's way too good! I thought it would be a good idea while I was out to check out the bedside lamp situation at Walmart. I'm fed up with having to get out of the warm, comfy bed to turn off the lamp that we have now.

We had registered for some lamps from Sears, but never got any. We still have gift certificate for a hundred dollars from the store, but I was on a mission to find some that were cheap, but nice looking. I found these bases at Walmart for $5; seriously! And the shades were only about $10. So, I was able to buy two complete lamps and bulbs for way less than the price for one base from Sears ($59.99). And, when I put it all together at home, I loved that the bases matched the handles on the dressers, didn't plan for that - but love the matchy-mathcy! Slowly working at making our house a home.

Like I said, I loved having this list to check things off of. I'm going to make it a ever-running to-do list, still with a selection of random things to do: some fun and some get-this-done, and have it handy whanever Justin's out of town!