I think I'm ready....

To start blogging again...

Another layout

'Cause I don't have much else to say today. :)

This layout is a result of the ad challenge over at The Scrapping Nook as part of their winter IceCROPades event. We had to make a layout inspired by an ad that was provided to us. There were two and I chose this one.

I was drawn to the curved lines. I really liked the retro feel of the ad and realized I had the perfect photo already printed off just waiting to be scrapped!

This was my end result. The layout took a surprisingly long time to scrap...which usually happens to me when I have a picture in my head of how I want the end result to be. In the end I think the simplicity of the layout does true justice to the ad. Thanks for taking a look!

I hope to be back in a day or so to share some more Project 365 photos with you...although already it's only a few times a week. I'm easing into it I guess. Off to night shift tonight. Wish me luck! :)

New Gel-a-tins!!

I love the new Winter CHA release Gel-a-tins. I have hundreds of ideas swirling in my head with not nearly enough time in the day to make them all come to life. Here is my first layout with two of the new releases, "Flower Power" and "Butterflies are Free".

I went back to my tried-and-true alcohol ink technique for this layout. Using a transparency on the smooth side, drag coloured alcohol ink along the length leaving it looking striated. This will give you a stained glass look. I then flipped the transparency over and stamped the butterflies with Pinecone Versa Color and sprinkled Gel-a-tins Pearly Glitter embossing powder over top. Then you just need to tap off the excess and heat emboss on low. Taking your handy-dandy scissors, cut out each image and bend up the wings so the butterflies look as if they are landing on the page.

For the flowers, stamp with coloured ink on Kraft cardstock and heat emboss with the Pearly Glitter embossing powder. Hand-cut out each flower and leaf. I also outlined all the petals on the flowers with my brown Slick Writer to give the individual flowers more contrast. I bent the edges and popped some up on the page to add dimension.

It takes a while to complete all the steps but I think the end result is well worth the work! I hope you do too! :)

Things you forget to tell your kids about...

So it's 9am and the phone rings...I look at the phone and it says it's the kids school I answer and I hear, "Hi Mrs. Backler. It's _______ school calling. Grace is okay. There has been an incident. Grace says she was pushed and got her tongue stuck to a pole. I don't know how she fell with her tongue sticking out but she pulled it off herself and now the tip of her tongue is bleeding. We were wondering if you wanted to come down to the school to look at it." In my head I'm saying, "Seriously??? WTF? Why didn't I tell her what would happen if she did that?" and "No I don't really want to go to the school to see her...I have a bunch of stuff planned for today." So I say, "Well how bad is it?" and she says she will get Grace to talk to me on the phone. A couple of minutes later Grace is on the phone and in a teeny, tiny voice she says she wants to come home. We go pick her up. Now she is home the tip of her tongue is raw, we gave her Advil because I don't know what else to do. There isn't a lot on the internet on how to treat this kind of injury! :) I'm going to try to take a photo of it later for my photo a day. I doubt she will let me though. ;)

You will be happy to know that we have now had a talk about not sticking tongues to poles on the coldest day of the year (even if someone "triple dog dares you") and if you "just happen to fall against one with your tongue sticking out when someone pushes you", (::rolling eyes here - 'cause I don't believe that for one moment::) don't pull your tongue off yourself! Wait for help if you can (and warm water).

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I have been scrapping up a storm the past couple of days. School hasn't provided me with much homework this week and I'm enjoying my last few days to myself before I start my new job. My layouts are all challenges from the Nook's IceCROPades event going on now through March. I highly recommend it because it really gets the mojo going again.

I made this first one in 31 minutes (it was a 30 minute challenge). So I didn't quite make it but 30 minutes is a huge stretch for me.

This second one was to use a quote provided. It was about winter and snowflakes. I had this photo of a tiny snowmen the kids made a couple of years ago hanging around for ages. It was perfect for the quote! I cut the snowman out from the photo and popped it up so that you could make the edges of the snowman out.

The last challenge was to use this layout by Deanna on the site as inspiration for your own layout. I took inspiration from the colours, the word "big", and the arrow. I had scrapped this photo as a digi layout in the past but really wanted to do a paper version of it. I'm happy with the result. Thanks for the inspiration Deanna!

Project 365...

I love the idea of it. I don't think I can take photos everyday of the year but I'm hoping that mine will be a bit more like Project 201 or something. I'm starting a bit late and I have already missed some days. I have seen some great things this week that I wanted to have photos of but didn't have my camera with me. I have to keep my point-and-shoot in my purse at all times! Bad Jen.

I started out following a challenge on another board using their suggestions of what I should take a photo of but quickly realized that I wasn't going to be able to keep up. So now I'm just planning on trying to take some daily photos and posting the best of the day.

Here is what I have so far:

This was to be a self-portrait. You can't really make it out but there is a stethoscope above the keyboard in this shot. It really says a lot of my life and the direction it's going in the coming year. Blending my nursing with my interest in technology and through it all having my family to hold me together.


The next shot was to be something you can see from your desk. I took this photo of Simon's Webkinz who is patiently waiting for a tail reattachment surgery. Isn't he cute?


We were then to take a photo of the inside of our fridge. Here is mine in all it's messy glory.


Here is the view from my front door. I was trying to get the handle and welcome mat into the shot. Not very well exposed (I'm learning as I go).


Here is today's shot. I was completing the photo challenge for the Nook's IceCROPades photo challenge. This week's word was "ice". I'm really happy with how this one came out.

I'm going to try and post my photos weekly. We will see how that goes. Maybe my blog will keep me accountable. Fingers crossed.

So....

I started school this past week. It's going to be a lot of work. I'm a bit nervous about all of it to tell you the truth. It's been 10 years since I was in full time school and I wasn't working full time as well! I'm excited about what I'm going to learn though and it still sounds like a great program. I realized yesterday that I don't have to work Saturday's ever again...well, for at least a year or so. :)

I'm going to be staying at my SIL Jenn's place on Thursday nights (for as long as she can stand me) as school starts at 8am on Fridays (I have a full 9 hour class day on Fridays). I'm looking forward to spending time with Jenn and chatting it up.

Paul is still looking for a job. We are starting to feel the crunch now. Here's hoping he hears about another interview soon.

I'm off until Thursday when I have to go back to school and I don't have a ton of homework yet so I'm planning on actually scrapping! The Scrapping Nook is having the iceCROPades online crop right now and I'm itching to get to the challenges. I love a good challenge and these are going on until March. Stop by and check it out! There are going to be some great prizes.

Paul gave me an iPod Nano for my birthday so I have been busy loading that up. I'm looking forward to using it! I'm hoping to start a learn to run program soon and I love the idea of the Nike+ system. They have beginner running training programs and I think it's a great way to stay motivated.

I'm getting ready to cozy up by the fireplace over the next couple of days because the cold front is a coming! It actully said "frigid" on the news forecast this morning. Yikes!

I'll cry if I want to...

'Cause it's my birthday! I worked last night and I'm working again tonight so not much celebrating here. That's okay.....I'm getting O - L - D. :) Joking....I'm really not moaning.....much.

Not much new....more later.

Some news...

So, most of you know that I have recently been obsessed with digi-scrapping. I have been asked to join the CT of Ashalee Wall Designs! I think this will fit in nicely with my paper scrapping commitments and should allow me to actually get some scrapping done! It seems like I need deadlines and commitments lately to get anything done. ::rolling eyes here::

I'm excited about this appointment because I feel that Ashalee's designs mesh well with my style. Here are a couple of layouts I did with her latest kit "Ollie". Wonderful, jam packed kit for boys/tom girls. I still have to do a layout using a photo of Grace...I have the picture in mind and everything.

If you haven't tried Digi, I would definitely recommend giving it a try. I felt I knew my Photoshop inside and out and I have learned so much more making digi layouts.

I'm off to bed now....just got home from the night shift and I'm back in for the next two nights....yay me. Have a great weekend!

Emerging from the caos...

Wow.....what a whirlwind! This holiday season was a flurry of activity for us! Unfortunately I had to work this Christmas but it wasn't so bad. I managed to get most of the night off on Christmas by making a switch with one of the SO nice girls at work. We spent Christmas with the Backler family including Carole and Roy who made the trip over from England. It was so nice to catch up with the whole family again. The 27th brought Paige and Aiden's 4th birthday...so a party at Sarah's house. We were back to Sarah's house on the 28th for our Klunder Christmas. On the 29th we fit a lunch in with the Backlers and Paul's Aunt Pat and cousin Lee. Carole and Roy then spent the night with us and managed to survive two overtired, overstimulated, cranky kids all day on the 30th. So sorry again guys if you happen to be reading this.

Grace was crying for over an hour last night because of Auntie Carole and Uncle Roy leaving for the UK. She is going to miss them as are we. It's too bad our visits are so few and far between. I feel like all we do is get caught up and it's time for them to jet off home. I promised Grace that she can send weekly emails to them and that seemed to calm her down enough to fall asleep at last.

We saw the movie, Bedtime Stories yesterday. I quite enjoyed it. If you have kids, I would highly recommend going. Funny and entertaining. I wasn't expecting much with Adam Sandler but was very pleasantly surprised. In a somewhat related thought, I do admit to loving his "Red Hooded Sweatshirt" song though....it really cracks me up.

Today has been a sit around and rest day...we need it! I feel like I need a vacation from the holidays! :)

School starts on the 8th for me so I'm getting nervous. I have managed to be replaced at work for the shifts I wouldn't be able to make due to school until I start my new day job (::insert me jumping up and down here::) on February 2nd. Looking forward to spending more evening and weekend time with my family. No night shifts for at least 8 months!

Here is a digi layout I completed today...still stuck on the digi. All supplies can be found at Scrap Orchard. I used Ashalee Wall's kit "Dreamy" and and overlay and alpha from Pineapple Plantation Designs.

Doing it Digi...for two days anyways...

Just another layout today. Feeling tired. :)

It's been stressful...

It's been a stressful week around these parts.

• Paul still hasn't managed to find a job. We're hoping for early January now. Thank goodness for severance!


• I still don't know the start date for my new job and I'm trying to balance my current position with the occasional shift in my new position. I also have weekly meetings to attend as well.


• I had my last exam today for my Web Design Certificate. I'm taking a break now from that while I concentrate on the coming year.


• I will be working full time while I attend school full time as well. ::clenching teeth with the stress of it all::

I hope it will all be worth it.

Happy notes:

• Simon got discharged from the psychiatrist on the first visit (we thought he might have Selective Mutism last year but he came out of his shell over the summer).


• Grace was discharged as well after only a couple of months for her Separation Anxiety. She is doing amazingly well. She goes to sleep without calling us back most nights now.


• We saw Santa this weekend.


• Coming up to 30lbs lost from my body forever!


• I relaxed a bit this afternoon after my exam and did a quick digi layout. Loving the digi layouts lately.

A good day...

We had a nice day today. I managed to scrap a layout this morning. Good for me. Paul managed to sleep in. Good for Paul. The kids played nice together this morning. Good for all of us. :)

This afternoon we went to see "Oliver" at Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton. My parents bought tickets for us and them as part of our Christmas presents. It was a lot of fun. Grace is walking around the house singing all the songs and calling Simon "Mr. Bumble". This was their first real theatre experience and I think it went really well. They both seemed to enjoy it although Simon lost a bit of interest towards the end.

I managed to finish a couple of layouts with my November kit from The Scrapping Nook. To be honest I was worried I wouldn't get them done in time. I'm hoping to get a mini book completed as well. Hopefully in the next week or so. I used the Basics line from Glitz design this month.

Karen T. offered up an unofficial challenge (I'm not really sure she knew she did) to see if a romantic style layout could be made with this paper. I tried. Not sure it's romantic...but I think it's pretty sweet. My "Be Merry" layout also features the new Holiday stamps from Gel-a-tins, Holly Jolly. I also used the Save the Date set as well. For the large holly, I stamped first with lime ink and heat embossed with the Christmas Pine scented Gelly Powder. I then stamped the berries in red and heat embossed with the Ruby Slippers Embossing Glitter. I coloured in the holly with a lime coloured crayon. The small holly leaves are double inked with lime ink and evergreen ink on one edge of each. I heat embossed with clear Gelly Powder. All the holly was cut out of white cardstock and matted onto black cardstock and re-cut.

I'm taking a self paced class on Jessica Sprague's site right now called Up and Running. It's a beginners digi scrapbooking class. To be honest I thought it would be a bit too beginner for me as I feel I'm at least intermediate in my Photoshop skills. I have to say I have learned quite a few tricks already and I'm only done week two! Here is a layout I completed last night after completing the week two assignment. I have a long way to go but I quite enjoy learning this new craft.

Card Sketch a Day

So...after seeing Jen Roach's post about contributing to the Card Sketch a Day blog, I decided to give it a try. It's a great blog with a different sketch each day and tons of contributers! Anyone can contribute a card and the blog owner lists new calls frequently.

My contribution was to make a card from the sketch of a United States Passport. This is the card I came up with.

I got it!

Just found out I got the day job I have been crossing all my fingers and toes for! I'm not sure of the start date yet but have been officially told I got the job and that I should start attending the weekly Tuesday morning meetings. The stars are aligning in my favour! :) It's been a good week.

Now...if only Paul could get some news on his career. Jobless as of Friday. :( At least I have some fingers and toes to cross now for him! :)

I have some photos to post...soon.

October DT layouts...

I had fun working with the Heidi Swapp World Traveler line for this month's DT kit at the Scrapping Nook. All of the stuff on the layouts can be purchased in their online store with the exception of the Fancy Pants felt (they are sold out) and the very old Rusty Pickle chipboard numbers from my stash.



I had fun making this layout of the 10 places I would like to visit in my lifetime. I could easily add to the list but I thought this would be a great jumping off point. I had fun pulling out my Dymo Labeller for this layout! I'm going to try to do more of these BOM type layouts. I need more documentation of what my life is like. If you have any ideas for layouts I should do let me know!



The photos for this Aiden layout have been printed out for over a year! This Heidi Swapp paper worked perfectly with the photos of my sweet nephew. I love how intent he was playing with that car! SO happy I managed to get these photos!

I seem to be doing a lot of hand stitching on my layouts now. I can no longer cross stitch...I think I have overuse syndrome in my right hand, so these small amounts of stitching are just the right amount!

P.S. I'm down 3.2 lbs this week! Yay me!! :)

Not thankful for the Night Shift...

Here I sit at 0340 Monday morning. I am ti-r-ed!! Very tired tonight. As you can see, things have settled down at work and I have a bit of time to surf my favourite blogs. I missed out on a Thanksgiving dinner today with today with the inlaws. It's one of the hard things of being a shift worker. Most people are enjoying holidays and weekends while you are at work. Don't feel sorry for me though. I'm going to my Momma's tonight for some great turkey before heading back to work for another night shift.

Sad tonight that I didn't get to see the kids before coming in to work. It kind of sets me off on the wrong foot. It's funny because I SO enjoy my time to myself but I need my kid fix too! I miss not being able kiss them good-bye before I head into work and having them give me a great big hug. The words always follow, "I love you and I'm going to miss you".

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving and gave their loved ones one extra kiss this year. We all have so much to be thankful for. I'm going to post a belated thankful post this week I think.

Man I'm sore!

As part of my weight loss journey, I have been trying to exercise a lot more. Really any exercise is a lot more but I digress. Some weeks are better than others. This week, so far, is a good one. Yesterday I completed one of my Pilates routines (I have a DVD) and rode the bike in the basement for 20 minutes (yes I know that only 20 minutes is pathetic). Today I logged 45 minutes on the Wii Fit doing mostly Step and Boxing to get my heart rate up. I finished with some strength exercises.

Love the Wii Fit! If you don't have one I would highly recommend it. I love the interactive competitive aspect of it. I'm always trying to beat my scores...I'm the only one playing it right now. I'm trying to get Paul into it so that I can have some friendly competition going.

I feel good that I'm doing something about my weight once and for all. I'm positive that this will be a lifestyle change for me. I'm determined that this will be the last time I have to go through this weight loss roller coaster. I'm looking forward to living a healthy and active life for the rest of my days. There. I wrote it down. Now I have to follow through. It would be nice if it didn't hurt so much to go up the stairs though! All in due time, all in due time. Now, where did I put that ice?

Afternoon Date

Paul and I managed to get a little date in yesterday afternoon. Unheard of for us! We went and saw Burn After Reading. I quite enjoyed the dark humour and I felt the movie was very well cast. Funny in parts and suspenseful in others. Although not my favourite movie of all time, I would recommend it to others who enjoy somewhat strange movies. I love Brad Pitt in these off beat rolls. One of my favourite movies of all time is 12 Monkeys. I think he is amazing in that movie.

On the home front, things are looking promising. Paul has had a couple of phone interviews for new jobs. He is very excited about one of them, and he feels that the interview went very well, so we are hoping to hear back from them soon. Fingers crossed that he lines something up by the end of the month.

We had Grace at the doctor's again on Monday. It looks like we are mostly dealing with Separation Anxiety and Oppositional Behaviour. The good news? They don't think she is going to need medication! They said that it was good that we sought help when we did as her anxiety could easily transfer to other areas of her life. Thankfully it hasn't yet. She loves school and her activities and thrives there. We are incorporating some behaviour modification techniques into our lives and I think she is doing amazing so far. She even went to her room on her own last week when she was annoyed with Simon! That was a first and she was, of course, praised highly for recognizing that she was angry and not acting on her impulses. She has always thrived on our praise so I'm hoping that this will work well for the future. It's so much easier now that we know what we are dealing with. It will be a long road but we are all learning as we go and growing together as a result.

Off to the dentist again today. I'm not sure if I mentioned this but I really dislike going to the dentist! They offered to let me use the Laughing Gas for my appointment today so I'm going to give it a try. I'm a bit nervous about that as well but I'm hoping it will ease my anxiety a bit. Gee...I wonder where Grace gets her anxiety from? :)

Colour Challenge #2

There is a new colour challenge posted here over at the Scrapping Nook. You have until the 15th to complete the challenge and I will then draw a name for a little RAK from me. To win you just have to create a layout using the colours in the thread, post your layout to the gallery, and provide a link to your layout on the thread. Hope to see your layouts!

Here is the layout I created using challenge #2's colours:



I'm off to bed...I have to work nights tonight. Blech! Talk soon! Have a great day!

Dental therapy...

I went to the dentist today for an overdue check up. I never used to be nervous about going...in fact, there was a time when I wanted to be a dentist myself. I even had extensive jaw surgery at the age of sixteen. That all changed when a dentist yelled at me once after causing me a great deal of pain at an appointment. Ever since that appointment, I have needed to push myself to keep my appointments and pretty much white knuckle it every time I go. Even for the cleanings! In all fairness, the dentists and hygenists I have had since switching dental offices have been wonderfully kind and friendly. That doesn't really seem to help.

Fast forward to today. My first appointment with a new dentist. I have some outstanding work that needs to be done from my previous dentist (see above and my fear of dentists). The very nice, young dentist and I talk about what needs to be done. I say okay. She then goes on to ask me how I feel at my appointments. I said I was very nervous and that I don't like them. She nodded like she understood...and...I get to use gas at my next appointment! I'm so excited that I might actually be relaxed!! I hope it works....I will keep you updated. My next appointment is next week. If I write something silly next week, you will understand why! ;)

I ordered some new glasses yesterday as well. They should be ready in about a week. Looking forward to a new look. Since we found out that Paul's work contract is not going to be renewed, we have been trying to use all the benefits we can before it runs out at the end of October.

Paul has applied to a bunch of positions but no word yet. I'm starting to get nervous. I'm happy that I work full time and we should be okay for a bit. Worse comes to worse I can pick up some overtime shifts at the hospital. One advantage of being a nurse! Yay me! <-- Did that sound slightly enthusiastic?

In my continued effort to lose weight I'm down another 0.4lbs this week. I was sick all last week and didn't exercise much so it was pretty much what I expected would happen. I'm telling myself that I'm happy whenever the scale moves in a downward direction. I had a good loss last week and hopefully a good one in the week to come.

With that thought I'm off to get myself a peach from the fridge! Maybe then I can get my scrap room/office organized once and for all! I'm almost there....