Bad Blogger!

I’d like to apologize for not having updated my blog in almost a month!  Where does the time go??  Since my birthday, there has been alot going on in my life.  I’m going through a rough time personally, so thank you all for your blanket prayers and good thoughts. 

I have this week off.  Needed to get myself together and organize my life and I’ve enjoyed spending this week at home.  I miss being a stay at home mom.  I loved so much to take care of my home and my kids – ahhh…but life has other plans.  :)  It’s sweet while it lasts.

Looking forward to Christmas again.  This year, the kids and I will be home…and I’ve invited Diane and Brenda to spend it with us.  It will be lovely to focus on family and not have to run around everywhere, trying to be at two places at once.  If anyone has nothing to do or nowhere to go, you are invited to my house!

I have not heard back from the doctor yet regarding the mass on my uterus.  They seemed to have mislocated my results, during their move.  SO…i am giving them a couple of days to find them, because I really don’t want to go have that internal ultrasound again!  I will let you know how it goes when I hear.  I have been having pain off and on but am alright.  I am hopeful that the mass is just a fibroid and is benign – but it is causing me trouble so I suspect it will have to come out.  :)  I’ll keep you updated.

I scrapped yesterday for the entire day.  Felt so good.  I love these family photos.  So…without further ado, here are my November Designs.  ENJOY!  Love you all very much!!  xo

By the way...MOM and DAD you should get Facebook!
It's easy to join. All you need is an email address and a password. 
Mataunte Anita is on there and alot of our other relatives - it's a fun way to keep in touch!  K...love you. Bye!

 

Happy Birthday to me

Today I entered the last year of my 30’s.  I could be depressed, but I hear the 40’s are awesome, so i’ll take my friend’s word for it…and just live it up till I get there. 

Not much going on today.  I’m od’ing on chocolate and coffee.   In the meantime, I scrapped (as a present to myself).  Just being a little honest about ME today. 

Happy Birthday to me.

I’ll have some photos of the kids from Halloween soon.  I’ll show ya a bunch this week…right now I gotta go shower, cuz I’m going to Sarah’s for dinner.  I really don’t know what I would do without her and Rob…they love me more than I deserve.  Thank you Lord for the best gift ever…my loyal and caring friends, SARAH and ROB. 

Altered Kleenex Box

Hey, I’ve always hated how ugly those tissue boxes look, so a makeover was in the cards!!  ;)

 

Just a few layouts I’ve been working on

Things are going well at home.  Kids have been busy with their friends and I’ve been working my butt off.  I took a bit of time this weekend to relax and scrapbook – after Diane came to visit!  Had so much fun.  xo

 

Feeling a little sentimental today

This is a photo of my Daddy and his big brother, likely dated around 1944.  My uncle has since passed away, and scrapping this photo made me miss him very much.  I also realize looking at this today that my son looks alot like my Dad in this photo.  Awesome photo…and very nostalgic.  What do you think?  I’m so sentimental today. 

Week #7 BSH Layout.

Happy Saturday everyone!  I’m enjoying today because I stayed home and did NOTHING!  WOOHOO.  I did force myself to take a shower so I could go out to rent some movies, so I’m looking forward to chilaxing with the kids tonight.  I hope I don’t fall asleep (like I usually do)– ha!

This morning I did my layout for the Week 7 Challenge for BSH on LP.  I used the Patterned Paper that came in our September Project Kit, as well the beautiful Prima flower and spray.  **hehehe…i bought the kit cuz i had to have the paper.  Not sure I’ll have any left for the purse.  ha!  Anyways, I did an overload of stuff on this one.  I just couldn’t stop.  I love the eyelet lace which I sewed all around my photo.  AND I love that paper!!  It’s a photo of me and the kids and the 7 favourite things I love about them.  I also used 7 of my favourite design elements.  (Distressing, Flowers, eyelet lace, journaling tags, glitter, brackets and scallops.)  My friend Sarah took this picture of us a couple of weeks ago at her house.  It is untouched (just printed in Sepia tone).  :)

Here’s a close up of the title…cuz the glitter is so pretty!

Here’s a close up of my  journaling.


and a close up of the awesome floral pieces.  The floral spray and the cream coloured posies were in the project kit.  AMAZING value!!  Aren’t those leaves amazing as well??  I picked those up at my local stamping store – but I didn’t remember to check out who made them.  I will need to buy more of them!  I love them!

Now, I'm off to watch a few good movies with the kids.  We rented the new movie with Seth Rogen, the new X-Men movie and one for me…  DEFIANCE.  Tomorrow’s a big day – we got apple picking at the orchard (aka, fall photo shoot) and the kids go to the movies with a bunch of their friends/dates.  I love that they are older now but I don’t like being a taxi.  Oh well.  Could be worse right??  I shall not complain too much!  ;)  Happy Scrapping!

September Alternate Kit – Prima Rebellious

Every month Von puts together AMAZING kits.  And every month I swear I have a new favourite.  This kit was no exception!  I have always loved Pink, Green and Black together, so you can imagine how excited I was to work with this fabulous, trendy and hip paper from Prima.  It was perfect for those LOVELY photos I’ve had of KAYLA for a couple of months now. 

ENJOY!

Flower Pot Cards

I made these flower pot cards last Friday that I’ve been dying to show you.  I’ve been so busy i haven’t had time to post it yet, but here they are!  Aren’t they precious??  I used Stampin’ Up stamp to make these look like poinsettias'.  These will be awesome for Christmas cards for someone special.

Here is where you can find tutorials.
Stephanie Luman
Lynn Larson
Julie Alain
Andrea Walford

**Here’s a secret.  If you Google Flower Pot Cards in Google Images, you can get a bunch of different beautiful ideas!

 

Be good!!  Love ya’s!

Halloween Mini Album

***My dryer broke – I think i shall break down and cry now.

I made a Halloween Mini album out of some of those thin foam pieces you can buy at the Dollarama.  I see them all the time.  A package of pre-cut shaped thin foam pieces.  I just happened to stumble on these last year – and they were in the shape of a pumpkin.  I  knew right away I had to have them because eventually I would want to make a mini album for my step-daughter.  So i bought them and they sat on my scrap table for an entire yet.  I think the cats even chewed a bit of foam off the stems of two or three or them. 

I dug out my scraps and leftover kit pieces from the Imaginisce line last year (last year’s LP kit).  I also had some Rusty Pickle patterned paper and a couple of sheets from American Crafts (i think it was).  Also at the Dollarama I bought a couple of sheets of neat looking embellishments.  CHEAP.  Affordable – I like it.  The really neat thing is that the foam was actually thin enough that I could sew a piece of patterned paper to each side and run it through my sewing machine – no clogs, no mess, no fuss!  I love that.

So…the above foam turned into this.  God, I love it when a plan comes together like that.  ;)

 

Rockstar

A while back I got a beautiful gift from a friend named Kristin.  It was the DCWV Rockstar Patterned Paper Pack.  I also got the Ribbon from another friend, Gabrielle.  I’ve been collecting this stuff for a while now and while I’ve used some of it up before, really needed to dig it out and get some good use out of it.

These are a few projects I’ve made for the LP Big Scrapper’s House BLUE TEAM challenge this week. 

The Rockstar Stamps were from Von.  Let’s just say these projects were made, courtesy of my ROCKSTAR Scrappy Friends at LP.  I love that place.  ;)

 

The kids are doing great!  Kayla’s going to see about dropping her Religion class and take an easier one next term.  It’s waaaaaaaaaaay too hard for her.  Other than that, she’s enjoying school so far!  Jory is doing well also, and really enjoying Phys Ed.  :)  I’m still working away…

Dennis and I celebrate 5 years together this weekend.  WOW eh???

By the way, I added a playlist so you can listen to my favorite SCRAPPY music!!  If you want to turn it off, go to the bottom of this page and click the pause button.  OR TURN OFF YOUR SPEAKERS!  Hope you like it.  :)

A long post - reflecting

Thank you all so much for the wonderful birthday wishes for Kayla.  Can’t believe my baby girl is 17.  It seems like just yesterday I was lying in the hospital bed, holding her in my arms for the first time.  She is growing up too fast, but she is growing up into such a sweet girl, with a head on her shoulders.  I’m sure everyone is enjoying their long weekend – sleeping in!  I went to D’s this weekend, but came back last night, so I could spend today cleaning and catching up on laundry.  We started cleaning out the basement last week, so we’ll work on that for a couple of hours again today.  We’ve been throwing out all kinds of crap. 

It’s odd, because you all know how much I love to decorate!  It’s been pretty evident in the past several years I haven’t given much thought to decorating.  I mean, i live in this house, but it’s a holding cell.  That place in between where I was and where I want to be.  I live here, because it’s a roof over my head – not because i want to. 

God has been gracious in providing this for us and has blessed us beyond anything I can ever express, but my heart is not in this place.  It’s big, it’s old, it has memories of a past life…and although it’s where we (as a family) have found our place again, it’s quite a burden.  Please pray for us.  More and More each passing week, this place depresses me and I really want out.  I’m taking the walk in faith, believing God has a better place for us that we can afford, and so I’m cleaning out the basement and getting rid of stuff, which will make it easier for us to move out.  I’ll be ready to go in a week, when the time comes.  :)

Enough of the depressing stuff. 

I hope all of you are doing well!  Brenda and Diane, i hope you are enjoying your new apartment and are starting to settle in.  I am sure the commute to work is a heck of alot of easier and you are saving time as well. 

Mom and Dad, I love and miss you and I think of you OFTEN!  I am looking forward to seeing you all again soon…we miss you so much.
 
Many people do not understand how difficult it is to raise two teenaged children when you are by yourself.  I am endlessly driving them places, to friends houses, to events and school functions.  Driving them to a date, picking them up…cleaning so their friends can come and visit.  Taking them shopping, getting groceries, going to the dentist…stopping at the drug store and yet still manage to have somewhat of a social life of my own.  I honestly do not know how I do it.  I am tired.  I am exhausted.  My mind, my body and my spirit are drained.  I dream about someone taking care of me for once.  It is difficult for people to understand me, unless they have walked a mile (or a day) in my shoes.  I have lost faith in society.  I have lost faith in the goodness of people.  I have lost faith that people stand with integrity and that the things they tell me are the truth.  I’m jaded…I’m faded and at times I feel hopeless. 

The kids are growing up – and in a few years, there’s no doubt they’ll be off on their own – starting their own lives.  I wonder if at any time, they will ever realize the sacrifices I have made to ensure they grew up happy and healthy, strong and independent.  I wonder.  Arghh…don’t mean to be depressing, but this is what happens to me when I have ‘time off’ and time to reflect.  The good thing about being busy all the time is that I don’t have time to think too much about how unhappy I truly am.  There are some days I curse Steve and all that he has done to me. 

Okay, here are some pictures of my Baby Girl, who is now 17!!  Isn't she gorgeous??  AND so grown up!  She is beaming from ear to ear because her boyfriend Jeremy is sitting to her left…Jeremy is so nice, and has been one good friend to Kayla.  She thinks the world of him. 

 

 

You can click each picture to see it larger…and then just use your back button browser to get back.  Enjoy!!

xo