Random thoughts ...

My father-in-law was telling me last night how he really likes to read my blog to get insight into my life and through me, the daily lives of his 3 granddaughters. He's not so interested in the scrapbooking posts though ... sorry Dad!

I came across a challenge at BASB called Simple Thanks that peaked my interest. I am in no way going to try and do it as laid out on their site (I'm two weeks too late anyway!) so relax Dad, there's no scrapping in this post!! LOL! But as I was recently challenged by Greg to stop being so "glass is half empty", I am going to follow along with the spirit of the challenge for the rest of the month.

Today I am thankful for ...
... coffee ...
... daughters who want lights turned on while I'm in the middle of a blog post ...
... Greg and his wonderfully flexible work schedule that allows him to be Marley's Kindergarten helper today ...
... not having to walk Marley to school today in the rain and wind!

More pages for Marley's Scrapbook

I managed to get the next two pages of Marley's Scrapbook done this morning. I've been having printing headaches which have held up the process. It may just be time to invest in a photo printer! Now I can see that the photo paper I've bought doesn't photograph very well. Hmm ... live and learn!

As the title indicates, these are pictures of all the people to came to visit us in the hospital after Marley was born. She was the first grandchild on Greg's side (4th on my side!) and I was the first out of my university friends to have a baby so Marley got lots of visitors! She's still one of the "popular girls"!!

To see close up s of some of the details, check out my Picasa Web album here.

Biggest Blog Candy yet!

http://thechroniclesoforange.blogspot.com/2009/11/blog-candy-scroll-down-for-new-humble.html
Leah the Orange from Design Dollies is offering up the biggest Blog Candy I've seen yet! Check it out and her fabulous blog at the above link. To check out the Design Dollies site by clicking on their blinkie in my side bar.

Marley's Baby Scrapbook

I've just started scrapping an album for Marley and given that it can take me a week to do one page, it could take me a heck of a long time to document her 5 (almost 6) years of life!! Here's hoping I get it done to my satisfaction in a timely manner. We need our dining room table occasionally!!

This first page was started as a challenge entry but life got in the way of the challenge deadline so .... the important thing is that the page got finished. One down ....

The challenge was the Striped Challenge at Design Dollies. Marley picked out the main striped paper and once she did, the idea of entering the challenge and then the rest of the striped paper and other stripey elements just sort of fell into place. The layout actually came together quite quickly but ... well, life is crazy and sometimes deadlines become a little "soft". :)

Here are a couple of close ups of the details.

 

The next two pages took me some time to finish. Here they are:

Sorry about all the carpet in the shots. I had it all cropped in Picasa but for some reason the crop didn't translate when I imported it into my Blog. Hmmm ... blogging stuff to learn I guess.

So I had the base laid out and knew which pictures I wanted to include (I'd worked it out during one of the more boring sections of my construction detailing class at BCIT!!!) but while the layout of some of them came easy, the littler ones had me stumped for awhile. My printer screwed up so not all of them had a white border that I could easily use to mount them. I could have reprinted them but I'd already fought several times with my printer so ... I finally got the idea of mounting some onto a bit of brown cardstock which had the added bonus of tying the two pages together more. Then the journalling and the embellishments had me stratching my head again. I'm still getting the hang of journalling. I could say so much! How to condense it onto little bits of paper is my problem!! Also, what do I really want to be recorded for all eternity?! Hopefully when Marley looks at this 20+ years from now my scribbles make sense!!

Here are some close ups of the journalling and embellishments:

I have to give a big shout out to my friend Sandra (Stamper on the 'Shore) for the butterflies. I won those in her Blog Candy contest a little while ago and they are awesome! Thanks Sandra!! Marley also loved picking out which ones went onto this layout. (BTW Sandra's having another Blog Candy giveaway which you should check out here.)

Well, that's all I have done so far. As I get more pages completed I'll post them. Shall we start a pool on when the whole album will be finished? 2015?! LOL!

Pumpkins and Candy!

I know Hallowe'en has been over for a week but somehow I just didn't make the time to Blog about it until now. And of course I'm also working on Marley's Baby Scrapbook and entertaining LC who just got up from a nap at the same time!! Really, it's a miracle anything gets accomplished around here!

The picture above was taken at Westham Island Herb Farm when we were out there for Paige's Preschool Pumpkin Patch Field Trip a couple weeks ago. The sight of the orange pumpkins against the purple lavender was too pretty not to photograph. I'm betting it'll find it's way into a Fall themed layout some day!!

Marley's Kindergarten field trip was the same morning but to a different pumpkin patch so she went with her best friend and her mom and I took Paige, HER best friend (who happens to be the sister of Marley's best friend - very convenient!!) and LC to Westham Island. The tour of the farm was manageable with LC in the Baby Bjorn but I realized two things as we headed out to pick the pumpkins. One, I forgot to bring bags for the pumpkins, which led to two, how was I supposed to carry three pumpkins?! Because of COURSE LC had to have her very first Hallowe'en pumpkin!! This next pic was taken by one of our teachers as I was heading back in from the patch. They may be small, but my arms were pretty sore by the time I got to the van!! The little one in pink with her back turned is Paige. She was particularly uncooperative when it came to getting a picture of her on her first Preschool field trip!! Grr!!

Somehow I fogot to get a picture of the Jack -o- Lanterns that we carved out of the girls pumpkins. Double grr!! If anyone out there has one please send me a copy!!

The next big event was of course Hallowe'en. Greg's nephew Griffin was 1 on the 28th so we did a combined 1st Birthday party/Trick or Treating Extravaganza on the 31st. Because you know, it's essential to send the kids out the door to procure their yearly sugar fix already buzzed on sugar!! We had our two nephews (Jasper, 3 and Griffin, 1) and Greg's cousin's little guy Kieran who will be 2 in December. He was hilarious! I'm not sure he totally grasped the concept of ringing the bell, saying "Trick or Treat" and waiting until they put candy in his pillowcase, but he sure had fun running from house to house!!  He's the tiger in the picture below. Clutching his pillowcase. Not sure if he thought someone was going to steal it or not! LO!!

Paige did really well this year and only came home after hitting the haunted house at the end of 63rd! She was a Ballerina. A Pink Ballerina. Natch! Marley was Hannah Montana. Sigh. Let's hope this love affair ends soon!! Her costume was darn good, if I do say so myself. The pic I took of her "in action" is barely recognizable as Marley!

And then there was wee LC - the Panda. She got given this bag of Cheezies at our neighbours and spent the next 20 odd minutes in heaven chewing the crinkly package! So cute!!

Last but not least ... the posse!

Our kids were probably the safest ones out there that night as they were VERY closely followed by 6 adults - I only managed to catch 4 in this shot. I think we had about as much fun laughing at the kids exuberance as the kids did actually Trick or Treating!

It was a totally fun and crazy night. Thanks to all for making it so much fun!

Next holiday to get through ... Christmas. Marley is already making her list for Santa. Sigh! Heck, Marley is already making a guest list for her birthday party in February!! Stupid Day Planner Genes!!! :)

Tooting my own horn!

Okay, so I've been at this scrapbooking thing for all of MAYBE 5 months and I only started entering challenges the last couple weeks so imagine my surprise when I discovered one of my layouts posted on one of my usual blog hopping sites.
http://alacartechallenge.blogspot.com/
Scroll down a bit and you'll see my "BOO" layout under the "some layouts we LOVE" line.
I'm so chuffed!! (for all you non-Brits out there - chuffed means "proud", "happy", "please with oneself"!)

Hee, hee, hee!! I guess I really CAN do this thing afterall!

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http://notbusyenuf.blogspot.com/2009/10/blog-candy.html