World Card Making Day

This Saturday is World Card Making Day and there's lots of fun to be had over at Treasured Scrapbooking! Fun challenges from all the DT members! I even have my card all done and ready to reveal. We all know how cards and I don't usually get along, but I'm kind of digging this one :) There'll be a chance to win an awesome card kit and lots of amazing inspiration! Please, join the fun!

Some scrappiness

It's been awhile since I've posted some of my scrappy work. Here's what I've been working on.

This layout was for sketch design team work at LCOM. Our sponsor for the month of September is Gel-a-tins. I don't normally stamp a lot on my layouts, but I really like the look of it on this one. I wasn't sure how I felt about this layout at first, but it has really grown on me...I got to use pictures I love and use up some really old papers from my stash! Oh, and this was done from my sketch as well :)

These projects were both for the Sept. 15th reveal at Treasured Scrapbooking. I've since completed most of the pages for the mini album, but I still need to take pictures of them.

This is a frame I made for Kevin's birthday with the kids handprints. Because when you're having a hectic first day of school, the best thing to do is cover your kids in paint.... I lifted this idea from Jenn (she does the the most amazing work!).

Well, that's it for now. I have one more layout that I just finished that I LOVE, but it's for my October challenge at TS so I can't share it just yet.

Bad Blogger

It seems I have been so busy getting into the swing of the new school year and lugging our laundry from place to place to dry our clothes (thank goodness our dryer is fixed now, but we went for a few weeks without it) that I've hardly had any time to blog at all. I'm sure you've all missed me, haha!

We had another big day last week. It was Kieran's first day of preschool last Thursday. He was so excited. He had been counting down the days until he got to go to school. I think it was torturing him that Riley went so many days and he hadn't even started yet. As soon as I got him out of the car and his backpack off he was saying, "bye Mommy!" Like I was just going to leave him there in the parking lot to toddle off to preschool :) I'm sure he could have found his way since we did it for 2 years with Riley. So, I took him down and got him settled. He must have tried to get rid of me 3 or 4 times before I actually left. I can't believe how big he's gotten! He is loving every second of preschool and I'm kind of liking the time to spend with just Bridget. We're settling into a new routine and things are going reasonably well. Here are some pics of his first day:

Well, I'm off again! Wow, that was my shortest post ever! We have to run to get Riley at school so I have to go wake the other 2 from their naps. I try to get them down early enough to have decent naps, but they always seem to want to sleep longer. I'll be back later to post some more, hopefully a few scrappy things I haven't gotten up yet :)

A BIG day!!

09-09-09. Was it a big day in your house? It was in ours! Today was Riley's first day of kindergarten and Kevin's 30th birthday. Riley was so excited. When I went in to his room and told him to go say Happy Birthday to Daddy he said, "ooooh, I'm so excited, it's my first day of kindergarten!" Daddy did get a happy birthday eventually :) So, it was a busy day of taking Riley to school, making a chocolate cake with minty frosting, making a picture frame for Kevin with the kids handprints on it (yes, paint in the midst of my busy day, heehee...I meant to have this done earlier, but Kevin's been home for the past 4 days!), making supper. I don't think I sat down all day so it sure is good to sit now!

Riley had such fun today. He was very excited to eat his lunch at school (hey, the kid likes to eat!). He knows some kids in his class already. He told me all about the books they read and the games they played. He especially liked music class when they played 'Who Stole the Cookie'. He told me there's no running in the halls and you have to walk on the gray lines :) At least he was listening, heehee. He wants left over butter chicken for lunch tomorrow. Bet he'll be the only kindergartner with butter chicken...glad he's not picky.

Kevin had a nice birthday supper and now he's at a church meeting. Fun way to spend a birthday, heehee, but you all benefit by getting a blog post :)

Here are some pics from the day:

Bridget will be ready for kindergarten soon too, lol. We were counting to 10 the other day with the boys and I swear she said at least half the numbers. And she'd say the next one when we paused. My little smarty pants. She also a bit beat up...a couple of bruises on her head and a burn on her wrist...she figured out the 'child proofing' on the water cooler. So, that's shut off now! She's still super cute though :)

No, it wasn't that cold...she just really, really likes hats :)

Kieran can't wait to start preschool next week. He's very excited to actually get to stay after 2 years of dropping Riley off! And then it will be his morning. This was his reaction today to us taking so many pictures of Riley and not him...

Which kind of reminds me of this picture when Riley was so annoyed that we were taking Kieran's picture (even though we promised Riley we would take his too after we took some of Kieran :)).

And one scrappy thing (because what's a blog post without something scrappy). I got my layout done for Treasured Scrapbooking's September 1st reveal. I sometimes feel like I should add more to my layouts but then I decide that I really like them how they are and I'm afraid if I add more I'll ruin it. I really love the layered look but never seem to pull it off. Guess I'm just a simple scrapper :)

Hope you had a great 09-09-09! :)

September!!

It's here! Where did the summer go? Riley starts kindergarten next week and Kieran starts preschool the week after. They are both super excited. I'm looking forward to getting on to a normal schedule. I'm sure it will take some getting used to and I'm anxious to figure it all out!

September 1st was reveal/challenge day at Treasured Scrapbooking. I only just got my kit yesterday morning (it takes a lot longer to get to me here in Canada than it does to get to the other girls) so I don't have my first layout/sketch done yet. Hopefully by tomorrow. But I did get my September challenge up. Here it is :)

September is National Honey month! My kids could eat PB & honey everyday if I let them! We couldn't have honey without bees, so my challenge to you is to dig in your stash and find me some bees! Use some bees on your layout, or, if you don't have bees, use a black/yellow colour scheme or a monogram B on your layout/card/project. This challenge was perfect for me because I've been saving all of my bees for pics from my DD's 1st b-day party. I made her a beehive cake with little bee cookies :) (We also call her B for short, her name is Bridget :)). Get to work, my busy little bees :)

Have a great day everyone! It's another sunny one today. Off to get Kieran's haircut and a playground afternoon :)

Where did August go??

I can hardly believe that this month has flown by so quickly! Riley starts kindergarten in 2 weeks less a day! Wow! He's so excited, and I must admit, I think it will be good for us all to get back into a set routine. I think we're all getting on one another's nerves, lol!

Last week the kids and I went to Cape Breton to visit family. We were there for 4 nights. It was so hot and the kids were a bit bored, but in the end, it was a nice little visit. I mean, I'm not hopping into my car to do it again (at least before next summer :)). But it was nice for a few days. I think it would have been a lot easier if Kevin had been able to come with us, but he had to work.

One funny story before I post some pics (and this is a Kieran story...imagine :)). We were talking about going to visit Nana while we were there (meaning my Nana, not Kieran's Nana (Kevin's mom)). My Dad said, "You can call her Nana, or NanaNana, or call her late for supper." We didn't think Kieran was really paying attention until later when I said something about going to visit Nana and he said, "I will call her 'late for supper Nana'." Haha! So funny!

We took several shots, and there is no good one of the boys, lol!

Bridget playing with Nana.

Again, hard to get a decent pic of all 3 of them!

B loves the waves!! No fear at all! They were crashing practically up to her neck and she loved it!

Riley loved the waves too!

Kieran decided to stay back from the waves! He loves water, but isn't a big fan of tides. The idea that the water comes in and goes out really freaks him out, lol! He's afraid it's going to come in and cover him up. He doesn't like Riley to go out in it either really. We've tried to explain that it all happens very slowly and you can see the water coming in and there's lots of time to back up, but he doesn't really get it. Guess it's the pool for him :)

Pretty girl :)

Riley Bruce, Uncle Ross, Grampie (Bruce) and Kieran Ross :)

Kieran decided he would rather sleep on the floor between the bed and the couch rather than being shoved out of the bed and have the blankets taken away by Riley. He didn't fall (which is what I thought when I found him), he decided to get down there.

Bridget AFTER I had already bathed her and gotten her dressed. This is where she put herself while I was dealing with Kieran.

Picking blackberries with Aunt Irma :)

We also took the boys to the exhibition and they loved it! Had fun looking at the animals and going on the rides. I took them on a couple...the tilt-a-whirl and the scrambler and I honestly thought I was going to be sick. Those rides never used to phase me. Guess I'm old. The kids absolutely loved it though. There was also a big obstacle course, fun house thing that they went through twice. We weren't sure how Kieran would handle it, but he climbed through it, no problem! It was pretty high at the highest point, but he ran across the bridge and down a big slide. He's a monkey...born to climb!

Bridget is getting so big! Kevin swears she grew while we were gone :) Her hair is getting longer and thicker (I know, it's still not a whole lot, but it's a lot to me :)). Her vocabulary is growing by the day. She'll say pretty much any word that you ask her to. She's a little hugger...must give me 1000 hugs a day...the wrap her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist and hang on kind of monkey hugs :) She loves playing with her brothers and thinks she's at least 3! She's so much fun!

The boys are great! They try my patience daily, but they are sweet and funny. We were in the grocery store the other night and passing the balloons. I told Riley, "Don't even THINK about it." He says, "Oh, I was thinking about it." Kevin and I both laughed and he says, "I knew I could still make you laugh." Too funny! Oh, they have their moments :) Kieran is just as excited for preschool to start as Riley is for kindergarten. I think he's excited that he finally gets to stay after 2 years of dropping Riley off!

Ok, on to some scrappy business. It's been awhile since I posted some stuff. Here are my mid-August reveals for Treasured Scrapbooking.

I should also mention that Treasured Scrapbooking is having a HUGE sale this week! Hurry, run and check it out here...first come, first serve ;)

Here is the last layout that I did for LCOM based on Becky's lovely sketch :)

Play along with the LCOM sketch team for a chance to win a HUGE Pink Paislee prize package!! Complete any or all of August's sketches and link on the sketch blog here for a chance to win!!

Finally, some Scrap That! DT work! I have had so much fun with the Basic Grey goodies they sent me for this month. At first, when I saw it online, I didn't think I would like the June Bug line at all. Well, I stand corrected...it is lovely in real life. And the woolie stickers are just gorgeous!

This is based on a sketch by the fantastically talented LG Belarmino. This is one of my fave pics of me and Kieran :)

My little monkey boy :) This was done using a pagemaps sketch. It was actually for a contest, but I finished this way past the deadline, heehee!

Phew, I guess I've been busy since my last post! I also received my Fall issue of Canadian Scrapbooker in the mail with my first ever published layout! I was pretty excited!! They even put in a little blurb about Scrap That! since that layout was done for a DT challenge that I had issued :)

Ok, this post has taken me forever! If you are still with me, thank you!! I hope to update more regularly...maybe once we get in to a fall routine. I'm off to do some cleaning and pass the time until I go out tonight!! I'm going to see The Time Traveler's Wife with a friend and I'm excited! I just finished the book on Sunday and it was amazing! I realize the movie probably won't be as good, but hey, at least I'm getting out of the house :) Have a great (early) weekend everyone!!

Aaarrghh!!!

There be an X marks the crop cyber crop happenin' over at Treasured Scrapbooking!! Check out all the fun challenges and games all me matey's have to offer :) And there be lots o' loot to be had so sail on over before I make ye walk th' plank!!

(Ok, I'm done with the pirate talk, lol!) Here's my fun new avatar that Cristal was so kind to do for me. She's done quite a few of them for the girls over at TS. Thanks, Cristal! You rock!

Here's the "In my Treasure Box" challenge that I issued:

Aaarrgghhh, ye has found me treasure box!! Open it if ye dare, but remember ye must use all the items found in the box for yer layout!

Here are the items:

A scroll which is marked with this quote: There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates loot on Treasure Island. - Use this as your title/subtitle or in your journaling.
Gold coins - use something gold on your layout
Lace
Buttons - at least 3
A threaded needle - stitch on your layout (hand or machine)
Jewels - show me some bling!
Rubons
A journaling pen - use it!! This layout must have some journaling!

And here's my sample:

I know you all need a fix of cute pics of my kids, heehee. Here are some pictures of our trip to the Hopewell Rocks:

Riley making a pirate face :)

It was a fun day and perfect weather. I thought it would be cold by the ocean but it was beautiful!

Ok, some fun Riley-isms:

Today Riley said, "Mommy, what's that kind of mayonnaise that isn't mayonnaise?"

Me: "You mean, when we call it mayo?"

Riley: "No, not the mayonnaise that we eat, the mayonnaise that you don't eat."

Me: "Riley, you can eat all types of mayonnaise."

Riley: "But, on Arthur today, they were in a helicopter and they were saying, 'mayonnaise, mayonnaise!"

Me: "You mean...mayday?"

Riley: "YES!"

Heehee! I then explained what it meant and he still later was saying "maydaise"!

He was also calling his pretend torch, a tortoise, lol.

And, oddly enough, a fun Kieran-ism. When we were at Hopewell Rocks the other day I ended up carrying Kieran a lot. He hadn't had much of a nap and it's a lot of walking. As I was carrying him, he sneezed on me. I said, "bless you." He starts wiping at my shoulder and says, "I bless you'd on you." Heehee!! He's a cutie!

Bridget has been showing some of her red-headed nature lately. I think she thinks it's funny to go to a time-out like the boys (heaven knows she's seen enough of them). She was hitting and throwing things today and walked around most of the day with a scowl on her face. Then she would go sit in her time out (several of these were self inflicted) and say, "now, now?" because the boys are always saying, "can I get up now?" Well, she's even cute in a scowly time out. It's all I can do to not laugh right at her :)

Ok, it must be almost bedtime. Oh, quickly (as I remember what I have to do before I go to bed) I had a layout requested for the Winter issue of Canadian Scrapbooker! Yay! I have to get it all ready to be mailed before I turn in :) Have a great night all!!