It's Finished!!!

Just a quick post to say Yip, Yip, Yippeee!!! I finally finished Marley's baby album (actually there were so many pictures/layouts that I had to split it into 2 albums)! I will try and figure out how to make some sort of slideshow thingy and post that so you can see the completed albums.
Thanks for sharing in this process with me!!


Aug 27th - UPDATE: I did up a little video in Picasa for you to see Marley's albums. This has taken me all day today - in between other Mommy tasks, that is! I had to take some pictures of layouts I'd forgotten to photograph or wanted to rephotograph because of flash glare etc, and of the album covers. Then getting all the pictures into the correct order was a little time consuming. Phew! I'm very happy to be finished and free to move on to other projects. Paige is already pestering me to start HER album .... soon, honey ... soon! I'd like to tackle our trip to Hawaii first though. Stay tuned, as they say!! And enjoy the movie!

Goodbye Uncle Ian

I received an email today from my Aunt Jean in Glasgow to say that my Uncle Ian has passed away. More sadness. More missing my family in Britain. More realizations that as I age, so do my Aunts and Uncles and I can no longer pretend that they will be around forever. Not that I really was. I am fully aware that we are all born, we live and then we die. I'm just not ready for that generation of my family to start with the dying part!!

Uncle Ian was my Aunt May's older brother. Double tragedy for that family this year and my heart goes out to them all. I so wish I could be there! He has been ill for a long time now and very recently had surgery to try to correct a previous surgical wound that wasn't healing. While his death does not come as a total shock, he will be sorely missed by all.

I looked back at my pictures of our trip in 2004 with Marley but I have no pictures of Uncle Ian from then. That makes me sad. He was always an intrinsical part of my visits there! I remember him as a tall, quiet man who always picked me up and dropped me off at the airport in Glasgow. He was so attentive to my Grandpa Jackson and Aunts Jean and Moira. He was a kind and gentle soul and I will miss him.

Good bye Uncle Ian. See you again someday.

Project 12 - July 2010

Well, here it is ... my Project 12 layout for July. I've actually had it completed for about a week or so but forgot to download the pictures from my camera until yesterday. Just now I saw Davinie's post and realized I had to get this posted and entered! The days are really flying past me lately!  

Here is the PageMaps sketch by Becky Fleck that we were given:

And here is my layout.

I really liked the rounded corners in the sketch. I bought a corner rounder thingy a while back and usually forget to use it! It was nice to pull it out again. I decided to use larger pictures this month. I tend to use small pictures on my layouts because I'm trying to fit so many on. I admit it!! I need therapy for "wanting to use too many pictures"! I'm just so in love with my girls that I want to show them off! I also switched up the right side of the layout to accomodate more pictures (see, I need a Support Group!) 

Here's a close up of the left hand side of the layout. Oh, and what'dya know! A picture of me!! Davinie made a similar comment and I laughed out loud because I knew I had done the same thing!

Here is the right hand side of the layout. The sketch has a long journalling strip and a single picture but I took the liberty (I think they call it creative license - really that's just an excuse to break the rules, right?) of making the long strip one of pictures instead. The journalling cards I've been using since the beginning fit better with this switch-up too. And I could round the corners on it. Bonus!

There you have it! For more details on Project 12 go to the Scrapbook and Cards Today Blog or visit Davinie blog at the link above.

July Recap

Apologies for being such a bad blogger lately! The summer has been busy and scrapping and blogging has been taking a back seat to kids, their activities, their needs for constant snacks, their needs for clean clothes, ... you know ... LIFE!

Here are some pictures of the goings on in the House of Day this past July 2010.

Marley started her summer with a week of Soccer Camp. Just so happened that it fell during our little heat wave out here!! Yikes! On the last day they had a Wrap Up Party with fun tournaments using a giant ball ...

... and a slip and slide to cool off on. After Marley tested it out and cracked her head by going feet first, a general head first rule was imposed.

Paige was a bit reluctant at first but after some help from Greg she fell in love with it. So much so we had a hard time removing her when it was lunch time!

Here's a rare picture of me!! I asked Greg to take it. Yup, that's what it's come down to ... begging to be IN the pictures instead of behind the lens! LC was having a "I'd rather be napping" moment!

But it passed when she discovered the cooling effects of the slip and slide spray!

The next day (July 10th if you're interested) our local Otter Coop gas station had a free BBQ party to celebrate the opening of a new car wash. Whatever! All I heard was "free lunch and cake"! They also had a fabulous face painter. Watch out for my post (whenever I get to it) about our trip to Osoyoos - I'll talk more about her then. Suffice it to say (and I think the pictures speak volumes!) this was the best face painting the girls have ever had!

That night was the Tour de Delta Ladner Criterium where hundreds of riders (kids, amatuers, pro ladies and pro men) tear around a circuit in "downtown" Ladner. It's lots of fun to see and feel them zoom past! Greg and I have volunteered the past 2 years and even billeted riders. This year I decided I couldn't handle the billets or the setup so Greg was on his own. Poor guy! For all his griping I think he had a lot of fun!

You may be wondering what Paige is shutting out ... look below and you'll see it's the Delta Police Band that piped the riders to the start area. Not much Scottish blood made it into her I'm thinking!!

That's Greg in the safety vest on the left walking the riders up to the start line. This is the final race - the Pro Men. Some of these guys go on to more well known races like the Tour de France!

Mid-race action.

That's the winner coming down the homestretch!

And this is how LC felt about the race!! LOL! Just kidding. She put her head down for just a few minutes at one point. But she was pretty tired - poor girl!! No naps for the wicked!

Jump ahead to July 17th - still in the grips of a heat wave and enjoying some backyard sprinkler fun. LC was given this play mat for her 1st birthday and the girls loved it. For all of a week or so before it got a huge hole in it which meant the sprayers stopped spraying. Bummer!

July 19th - Blueberry picking with Grandma and Grandpa Day at Emma Lee farms on Westham Island.

July 25th - Jonina and Andrew had us over to celebrate my completing my Interior Design Certificate. (Yes, for those of you who are wondering, I passed that final course ... barely! I haven't put out a big celebratory post 'cus I didn't get a high enough mark to continue on to the Diploma which bums me out. I know, I know, I should celebrate the small victories ... I'm sure my brain will get that message eventually!)

Greg decided to celebrate my accomplishment by drinking lots and letting me drive home. Hmmm .... not sure how that happened!!

This was where our play mat got a huge giant hole in it. COULD have had something to do with the kids jumping on it  ... maybe ... But they had fun - especially LC and cousin Sadie!

Okay, I had to include these pictures even though they don't strictly deal with our family. Sadie has a fairly strong personality (comes by it honestly!) and she wanted the hose. Jonina wanted to keep the hose in the pool to fill it up. Sophie just saw an opportunity to play tug of war! And play they did!!

Sadie eventually won! And then celebrated by spraying Jonina!! Gotta love it!

Well, that is pretty much our July. Lots of sunshine, water, kids and time spent outside.

Hope you enjoyed the peek into our lives.

Sketchy Thursday - Bathing Beauty

Time for another Sketchy Thursday submission. I think I can just barely squeak this one in on time!!

Here is the sketch:

And here is my layout:

I'm not feeling too good right now so won't blab on and on about it. All I will say is that I am just a few layouts away from finishing Marley's Baby Scrapbook and am SO HAPPY about it! I've done a bunch of layouts since I last posted but decided not to post them because ... well, who cares about them besides me, really? I will put together a slideshow of the completed album and put that on my blog - assuming I can figure out how!!

Off to make dinner for the family and then go and lie down. Ugh!

Talk to you later!!

Project 12 Catchup!

Okay, I'll start this post with a warning ... PHOTO HEAVY!!!

All right, now that you're sitting comfortably, let's begin.

During my Direct Studies Scrapping Hiatus, I had to put my Project 12 away. It was REALLY hard not to attempt something with the fabulous PageMaps sketches!! Now that I am PDS and scrapping again I was excited to pull out the sketches and my Project 12 bin and attack it! I'm pretty organized (no, really!) and orderly (seriously, I AM!!) so instead of jumping to June which is the month that's due in a few days, I had to start where I left off with April. Here's where you can find the sketch and here is my finished layout.

Funny story though ... I had a minor disaster happen while putting this together. Beneath the pictures on the right hand side I originally planned to stamp the number 4 with an arrow but when I stamped the 4, this happened ...

 

ACK!!! It turned out that my layout was half off my cutting mat so the stamp couldn't lay flat. Sheesh!! I'm pretty new to this whole stamping thing so I said some pretty nasty things and jumped around for a bit before coming up with the fix of using one of my journalling tags overtop of the bad stamp job (see below). It worked and with some extra butterflies and strawberries, you can barely tell anything went amiss!

Here is the left hand side ...

... and the right hand side.

A couple close ups.

 

Products used: all patterned paper is from Martha Stewart's Heirloom Pad; cardstock is from my stash (can't remember the brand); red flowers are from my stash of embellishments (I think I made them when I was playing around with my Cuttlebug many many months ago); red butterflies are also from my stash but the lighter patterned ones are new and made with the Marvy butterfly punch out of the inbetween bits of the strawberry patterned paper that I cut the strawberries out of - from DCWV Nanas Nursery Baby Girl pad; brown felt flower is AC Greenhouse felt flowers; ribbon is from Michaels Celebrate It; large alpha's are Making Memories Shimmer Jigsaw in white; numbers are AC Thickers Roller Rink in Glitter; Journal tag is Pebbles Inc Share & Tell in Chocolate brown (originally 4x6 but I cut off part of the bottom to make it fit).

Next month was May in which Greg and I always fight over Mother's Day vs. his birthday. Last year they fell on the same day!! Yuck! This year they were on consecutive days and I spent Mother's Day running 10K then recovering from the shock of it!! LOL! Greg turned 40 this year so we had a party the following weekend and he got all the attention he could handle! I wanted to devote one half of the layout to him in recognition of this milestone. Here is Becky's sketch and here is my finished layout.

I tried to keep the paper placement as true to the sketch as I could but I always seem to have more pictures that I want to use than the sketches call for so I have to play around with their placement quite a bit.

Here is the left hand side ...

... and the right hand side.

Some close ups.

I had this empty space just crying out for something but I couldn't figure out what and then the cluster of buttons just sort of happened and I love it!

Products used: as above for the patterned paper, cardstock, large alphas, journalling tag and felt flowers; ribbon is from Michaels - Celebrate It Dashes, Dots & Checks; buttons are Making Memories Paperie buttons in poolside; larger buttons (on the flowers) are from my stash; small brown numbers are Recollections in bittersweet.

Finally June! Again, I used more pictures than the sketch called for but ... what the heck! Here is the sketch and here is my finished layout.

The left hand side ...

... and the right hand side.

Some close ups.

I needed something to fill this corner and found this pink net in a pad of fabric swatches I'd bought at Micheals for a laugh. I think it works and I quite like it. I may work with fabric on my layouts more!!

Products used: as above for the patterned paper, cardstock, large alphas, and felt flowers; numbers are from my stash (can't remember the make anymore); pink and brown butterfly are Stampin'Up and from a blog candy win from my friend Sandra - Stamper on the 'Shore; the pink net is from a pack of K&Company fabric swatches I found in the discount bin at Michael's; the brads are Basic Grey as are the chipboard stickers; the swirly things are from my stash and the crystals are from Michael's.

Well, thanks for making it all the way through that!! Hope you like my work. Check out the Project 12 contest here and here.

Crafty Goodness!!

Okay, so I'm working on my Project 12 layouts for April, May and June (got a wee bit behind during my Directed Studies hiatus!) and will post them soon. April and May are done I just need to do June - hopefully later today depending on how much crafting time the kidlets let me have!! but what I really wanted to post about was all the sneak peeks I've been seeing for the Summer CHA that's comin gup soon in California. I MAY have to figure out a way to go to one of these shows one year. They sound like a blast! Of course, I'd probably have to win the lottery first and then hire a moving van to bring everything home!! LOL!

So here are a few of my favourites:

Monster Stew from Jillibean Soup.

Bella Blvd has a few new lines that ALL look cute - Sunny Happy Skies and One Fall Day are my favourites so far.

The Dear Lizzy Enchanted line from American Crafts is super cute - very girly which is perfect for a mother of 3 girls!! I also like their City Park line - those felt embellishments are to die for!

Well, that's it for now. I'll be back soon with my Project 12 layouts!