Just Perspective

Believe me when I say..

2012-01-26T20:19:00.003-07:00

This has got to be the cutest, cutest thing out there to get from CHA 2012. When I saw these I squealed :) :)!! Bella Blvd is the BEST! : :)

So my style, so girly, so sassy and so darn cute!

You have to head over to the Bella Blvd blog to win some of these too :) :)...

And if that's not enough... check these out..

That's right, we've got FLAGS! And these are not the only flags.. there are soooooo many.

And, yes, a giveaway for that too! I'm overwhelmed by cutesies this week and I'm looking forward to playing with these soon!! :) :)

Bella Blvd is gonna rock CHA 2012! :)

Snow & More

2012-01-26T08:08:00.000-07:00

Lucas, I cannot even begin to explain how much you love the snow.

When we walk across the snow covered park, you want to get out of your stroller to frolic in it. You want to pick it up and play with it. And have fun with it.

You're the funniest snow dude :)

Loved creating this using some fun paint and playing with Bella Blvd's Winter Wonder collection.

It's still cold here in Calgary, but not like it was last week. We're just hovering above 0 degrees celsius and that's just fine for all of us. The snow has actually turned to slush and Lucas wants to get down and play with the muddy slush but right now we're able to keep him away, thank heavens.

I'm not that good at taking my camera out to play these days but at least I've gotten a few snow poses recently, enough to play and scrapbook with :).

Have been scrapping this week also using Studio Calico's January Kit and will share later this week :).

xoxo
Sue

CHA 2012 Bella Blvd Release - Sunshine & Happiness (and a few more)

2012-01-25T19:59:00.003-07:00

If you go right here you'll find the lovely Sunshine & Happiness collection in its entirety. I think it's a pretty pretty pretty collection and I so can see me using all these papers for layouts and mini albums :). Soooooo versatile and soooo fun!

And then, who doesn't need more alphas, right?? Last year when Bella Blvd came up with these 12x12 alpha sheets, I was so awed. It's so fun and easy and OMG good to use on your pages! So many alphas and they MATCH! :) Great value for money for sure..

This year, even more fun alphas stickers are being released... see them all here, the 'High Five' Alphabet Sticker collection!

Gotta have me those turquoise and blue combo sheets! :)

And don't forget to fun and delish miniatures!! :) :) Really fun to use on those cards :).

Stay tuned for more tomorrow :) :)!!

xoxo
Sue

Goodbye, Pencil Lines

2012-01-24T14:47:00.002-07:00

I'm really sad to hear Anna's news over at Pencil Lines. It's been a fun ride and I wish her all the best in her next creative journey. Really enjoyed being a part of the final Design Team for Anna (at least for now).

Pencil Lines has inspired me since it begun many years ago and I feel so privileged to have been a part of this creative team of ladies!

Cutest Mini Shopper - Studio Calico

2012-01-24T07:33:00.000-07:00

I loved Studio Calico's latest 'County Fair' kit. I am so happy with the fun patterned papers in the kit. I've needed a boost of colorful patterned paper lately and this was just what I needed.

I love the patchwork design here and I have a feeling I'll be doing this loads in the future! :)

Lucas was hanging out at the supermarket and we wanted to give him something to do rather than just screaming in the trolley! I let him have his own trolley :). Smart, eh? He did so well with it so, photo moment :).
One of my favorite elements of this layout is the wooden chipboard alphas. I love them!! Also, I wanted to try some new colors of Mister Huey mists :). Pony and Cameo. Love them!!

So love that I got to capture this moment, a first of many for 2012! :) :)

Have you been capturing moments too?

xoxo
Sue

Another week of Sneak Peeks! - CHA 2012 - Sprinkle, Lace & Chipboard

2012-01-23T10:28:00.000-07:00

Another week of delish reveal of Bella Blvd products!

Seriously fun range of products, and if you head to the Bella Blvd blog post, you will be able to see even more close up images! And, of course, a GIVEAWAY!!

I love the lovely chipboard elements in different shapes and sizes!! :) :)

CHA 2012 Bella Blvd Sneak! - Stamps & Tape!

2012-01-22T15:54:00.004-07:00

Can you believe this cutie :)??? I love the new Designer Tape coming to a store near you soon :) :).. and there are these new stamps as well as Bella works together with Unity Stamps!! :)

There are so many new things that I love and just have to have! :) :)

Check out the Bella Blvd blog for more stamp images and a GREAT GIVEAWAY!!

We're just having a good quiet weekend with homemade pizza for dinner coming up. Loving my home oven and home baking (also had homemade blueberry muffins this weekend.. yum!).

Have a great Sunday :)!

xoxo

Family :)

2012-01-19T13:38:00.003-07:00

The children (and us!) have been fortunate enough to have family visit us the past few weeks. My sister and then now, my dearest aunt who has been here for the past three days. I have been so blessed to have a family member visit me from so far away (almost 24 hours to get from my part of Asia to Calgary!).

The temperatures here in Calgary have not been good at all! Record low temperatures these past few days have not been conducive for travelling or sight-seeing but I'm so happy to have my aunt join us in our warm home nevertheless.

We've had a look at the city from the warm car, and went to the mall for some shopping but that's it :). And now she's gone home to the balmy 30+ degrees celsius while I sit in -30 :).

But it's all good. I'm so glad she had to experience my life, to see my kids in their own setting, to enjoy our harmony to be part of our dinner table conversations, to come with us for figure skating for Lara to see how she does. We are happy to have had her be part of our lives for this short time.

And now my life returns to 'normal' - the daily routines, the daily things, the stuff. The good stuff.

:) And some scrapbooking and laundry. Of course.

Have a happy, warm day wherever you are..

xoxo
Sue

Bella Blvd Sneak Peek Week - CHA 2012 - We're Expecting

2012-01-19T06:00:00.001-07:00

More Reveals for Bella Blvd for CHA 2012 coming up!

Here is the new 'We're Expecting' collection! :) I love all the pretty baby stuff and this is perfect for making pages for babies and mommies-to-be.

Isn't that 'Birdie Told Me' stamp just adorable!!!

Don't forget this week, we are giving away one set of the day's reveal so go on to the blog to check out the pieces individually and maybe win yourself some!! :)

You have to go peek at the blog for the loveliest layout by Laura! :)

Watch out for more Bella Blvd reveals tomorrow! :)

Bella Blvd Sneak Peek Week - CHA 2012 - BABY GIRL

2012-01-18T06:17:00.001-07:00

Did you love the Baby Boy collection?

Guess what, there's a Baby Girl one too!!! :) :) So cute..

"It will be impossible to put away her teddy bear friends and snuggly blankie as she soon becomes a young lady. After all, she'll always be Daddy's Girl.."

Isn't that a lovely sentiment. (I'm a devoted mom to a beautiful daddy's girl) :)

Preeeetttyy!! :)

Every day this week, we are giving away one set of the day's reveal so go on to the blog to check out the pieces individually and maybe win yourself some!! :)

Watch out for more Bella Blvd reveals tomorrow! :)

Bella Blvd Sneak Peek Week - CHA 2012 - BUTTON MARKET

2012-01-17T06:14:00.001-07:00

Do you love colors, buttons and fun shapes??

Welcome...

I cannot imagine life without those cute hearts, flowers and stars now! Go ahead along to the Bella Blvd blog to see these items in more details and of course, yes, our giveaway. That's right - every day this week, we are giving away one set of the day's reveal so go on to the blog to check out the pieces individually and maybe win yourself some!! :)

Watch out for more Bella Blvd reveals tomorrow! :)

Bella Blvd Sneak Peek Week - CHA 2012 - BABY BOY

2012-01-16T06:05:00.002-07:00

Are you ready? From the time that Stephanie, the sweetest boss and owner of Bella Blvd revealed to us the extraordinary collection that Bella Blvd will be doing this first CHA of the year, I was SMITTEN!

So this week, we will be showing off, revealing the awesome collection for 2012! :)

Without further ado, here is Baby Boy:

I love those Unity Stamps, the cute monkeys and even those animal prints! :)

Every day this week, we are giving away one set of the day's reveal so go on to the blog to check out the pieces individually and maybe win yourself some!! :)

Watch out for more Bella Blvd reveals this week! :)

xoxo
Sue

Bella Blvd: Saturday Sketches

2012-01-14T08:48:00.000-07:00

Playing with Bella Blvd this week. It's been a long time since I got into my mists and paints and just dived in and played. Over Christmas I bought this glitter paint from Martha Stewart's collection. LOVE the texture it becomes when dry. So pretty.

Layering paint and mist is fun. But you gotta wait till the mist dries :). At least a bit. Cream paint (also from MS) used here for background and then the glitter paint put on in streaks.

This layout is based on the sketch for the Bella Blvd blog.

And here's my take:

Yes, chocolate paint splatters. LOVE!

Love these pictures of us in the snow! Especially love this one of me and Jaye.

Mixing it up with the alphas from the Sophisticates collection. :)

I really love how this layout came together, don't you?

Have a happy winter January day! We're off to the Farmer's Market today and hoping I get loads of photos today with my handy iPhone :).

xo.
Sue

Finally Friday

2012-01-13T22:25:00.006-07:00

It is finally the end of Friday and we're all ready for a nice weekend together as a family. And this weekend we're also hosting a special family guest and I can't wait to see her and show her our beautiful city.

Our week has been busy, starting with going back to school stuff and ending with vaccination for Lucas and me. Decided to get the flu shot this year given I'm busy and engaged with kids activities and gym activities. However, we're all settling in for the weekend which is great.

This week I also started Project Life preparations, having received some delicious goodies from the Becky Higgins Project Life collection - Clementine. I'm sure you've seen layouts going up all over the place. When I ordered the Clementine set I hadn't seen all the pretty insides. I'm so glad I took a chance on this set. It's so pretty! :)

I'm playing around with the kit this weekend and I'm looking forward to showing you here on the blog. :) I'm glad to be in the swing of recording 'life' with these pretty papers but also seeing my photos in a different light.

This is all good, happy stuff.

Enjoy your weekend! :)

While taking in life (week 1/52)

2012-01-09T11:30:00.000-07:00

While taking in life, and rushing about my day-to-day, I am grateful to have Project Life thoughts in the back of my head.

That makes me capture moments with my iPhone. It makes me think about how I will write about this moment or that. I am happy to report that the first week of 2012 has gone smoothly and also, recorded in photos.

I'm still waiting for some Project Life materials to come streaming in before I do loads of photo printing but here are some snippets from last week.

We all visited the Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in Calgary this past weekend. It's so amazing to have so many of these sporty moments recorded. While not a big sportsman myself, I am definitely in awe of the many achievements of Canadian men and women athletes.

Lara had some busy 'journaling' days. She got her annual 'diary' from me this Christmas and has been writing. I love this shot taken at the mall. She had to wait so she decided to write. I remember me being her age and the book(s) I had in my hand too. Love.

Coffee. This is my favorite indulgence. Earlier in the week, I bought two cups. My sister was still here then. She's back in Singapore now. boo.

A good start with the photos and more to come. Made 2 layouts last night and prepared some with paint (left to dry) this morning while watching some morning TV shows with little Lucas.

Tomorrow we're off swimming Lucas and I. Very excited for his first swim lesson! Hope you're off to a good start where you are too!

Happy week ahead :).

xoxo.
Sue

We did it!

2012-01-07T11:25:00.002-07:00

New haircut :). New resolutions and everything.. made me want to change something. So I got a new haircut earlier this week. Lovin' it right now. It's been a long time since I got a haircut...

And for good measure, Lara sweetie got a cut too :).

:) xoxo. Happy weekend y'all.

12 things for 2012

2012-01-06T12:51:00.000-07:00

12 isn't a big number is it? Maybe too big.

I started out writing this post just thinking about 12 things I wanted to do and achieve in this new year. But I'm not sure whether or not 12 is too much. Doubt sets in. Can I even think of 12 things? Can 12 things be achievable after a few months of coasting by and treading water as best I can?

But I am resolved. I find myself needing and relishing a bit of a challenge. So here are my 12 things to work on for 2012. There isn't always a real 'goal' in each of these but rather a resolve to work on the particular relationship or the activity. You'll see what I mean when you read through these.

When I had charted these out, I also find myself feeling satisfied and happy.

MAKING GOALS MAKES ME HAPPY.

And I am looking forward to a year of working on these things. Reporting and recording progress as I go and being accountable to myself to see these things through.

I created a layout recently one of only a handful from these past months, and I feel exhilarated in the 'enormity' of our family's achievements in 2011. We had set out to return to Canada and we have. It is certainly a huge achievement and a huge undertaking at that. Weighing out risks, financially or otherwise, making decisions about family and friends, schools, home location, everything needed to have it's own 'list' of considerations. It was exhausting.

But we did it. We achieved.

However, the activities and 'stuff' relating to the transition has somehow overwhelmed my life in many ways. The stress of dealing with extended family health and other issues, along with the everyday routine things and a very very active baby toddler, just takes over. In achieving a very big thing, I forgot to achieve the small things. And I'm grateful for the very big thing. But I wanted to conquer the small things too.

So 2011 is now behind me, and with it the dust has somewhat settled around here. Literally and figuratively. And for that I am grateful.

And now I am looking forward to 2012 with new hope, new joys and new resolve. Being settled in mind as well as in place. And I feel better positioned to achieve new things, small things and big things for me and for my little family.

Here are my 12 for 2012.

1. Enjoying this love. I feel safe and loved. Everyday. Maybe I forget to show it somedays when things are tough. But I want to always make sure I enjoy this love. And show it back. That he is wonderful and loving and strong. A great father, a wonderful husband. I am so fortunate.

2. These children. My two. They are my life. My hopes and my dreams now are tied to them. I worry so much about them. And I love them so much and I'm so proud of them every single day, with every step they take. I learn so much from them everyday. About them and about myself too. Lara grows so fast, and is a precocious, serious and imaginative seven year old. Lucas is going into his next phase of life - the 'I am aware' phase. He's so aware of himself and starting to assert himself more than ever. I am so excited to get to know this little dude.

3. Blog. Yes, I have not blogged enough. Life and its many twists and turns had gotten me in its grip and I wasn't able to find the energy and time. Excuses, maybe, but it has been a tough few months indeed. I want to blog more this year. I will make sure it is a priority more than it has ever been. I've enjoyed blogging. Sharing photos and words and even when the comments are scarce, it's my way of 'counting' my days. So you can count on seeing more words here :).

4. Photos. I have taken some photos but by no means my normal number. Partly because I've had no real motivation and partly because I've not felt like I've done anything 'fun' to take photos of. This year I'm reverting to my former photo craze. It may not be with my Nikon any longer, but I'm fast falling in love with my iPhone's many photo apps, thanks to my lil sister's guidance to fun apps out there to use :). Thanks JJ! Now I'm so looking forward to playing some more. And it's so EASY to snap pics on the iPhone. Seriously.

5. Scrapbooking. To give an example of how much I couldn't scrapbook this year, I had to stop my December Daily 2011 project. I have all the pages ready to go but as December took off, I was not able to focus, not able to juggle, not able to stop to scrapbook. No energy at the end of the day. So I had to prioritise. Rather than stretch myself even more thinly, I had to prioritise and put all the other things first. On the upside, taking off the '1' and putting a '2' means I have a December 2012 album all ready to go.

Seriously though, I am a wreck without my one stable hobby. I love paper, paint, mists, and all my scrapbooking things but I got lost somewhere between the bedrooms and the kitchen and the couch I collapse on at night, I never made it to my scrap desk. And just these past three days, I've had a 'return to scrapdesk' revelation. It has been heaven.

This fun ski photo from last year was waiting for me to scrap it. And with Bella Blvd's Winter Wonder collection, I wanted to get into it :).

Pretty, cute, LOVE it! Bella Blvd papers and things are so bright and fun :).

I am also looking to complete my Project Life this year. I have gotten some products ordered and I'm looking forward to playing. It's been too busy a year in 2011 and I hate not catching up. But 2012, I hope will be better. I've done it all before and I'm hoping to achieve again. :).

I really want to streamline my scrapbooking to make it a lot more manageable too. I hope I'll be able to do this as part of my taking on Project Life this year too.

6. Writing. Hello words! I love words! I have been doing some writing and I want to continue doing loads more this year.

7. Health & Fitness. I finally caved and joined the gym like I wanted to. And I feel even more committed to a healthy body and lifestyle. It has been awesome just starting to go to zumba last year. And I'm looking forward to doing more of it again this year. That and swimming. Lucas has started going and LOVING the water too. And we are going to go together starting next week when he goes in for classes. It will be so awesome.

8. Knitting & Crocheting. I love my needlework and this year I want to complete three projects that I've started for a few years now and this is it. I've been distracted by other projects to complete, but that's okay. I'm determined to complete them this year :). More on this soon.

9. Settle in home. All good here really. I really love the home we live in, the place we live in. And we're slowly settling in. And I'm looking forward to doing more. But part of our big 'settle down' picture is to move to a more permanent home. And that will require some planning too. I'm so looking forward to that. There will be loads of sorting before we do that. And that's going to be a real big job. I know this. But I'm so excited about it.

10. Calgary. I've not lived in a more beautiful place. It has such character. I love getting to know the city, enjoying all it has to offer. And that's what's so wonderful. It has so much to offer to us as a family. The children has activities, and I have some opportunities too and we're all exploring the winter stuff together :). Banff is a haven for winter fun and we've just started to play - what an amazing place to live. All I can say is I want to keep on doing more. And keep the children encouraged and happy doing more!

11. Organised life. Yes. I'm working towards this. Still. Every day.

12. Happy. This is a big thing for me this year. Promising myself I want to stay positive and happy. Enjoying these 12 things and embracing these 12 things make up the core of what my life is right now. And I really hope that keeping to these core things will help me towards happiness and help me find myself further. Devoting my strength and focusing my energies towards these. So important. And I'm resolved.

So here's to 12 wonderful things. Have you got 12 things for 2012? Link back and let me know.

xoxo,
Sue

A brand new start

2012-01-01T15:21:00.003-07:00

In some ways I guess we're very lucky. We get a brand new start every 365 days.

I must admit, the past three months have passed by in a blur. Loads of it was routine mixed with craziness, being sick, looking after sick children, being busy, being occupied with planning parties and playdates and just trying to catch up with life for myself. I haven't been able to scrapbook as much as I wanted not only because of my new 'lack-of-printer' situation, but also the lack of time. If there's one word I can use to describe how I've felt during these weeks that have gone by I'd say 'exhausted'.

Which is not the word of my year 2011. For the record, my 2011 word was 'Embrace'. So embrace I did. I pulled through, cope as best as I could. Picked out the priorities I had to choose and unchoose to commit to, and breathe. Just simply breathe. Accepted, adapted, struggled, challenged, and tried my best. Embraced.

And 2012 is here and it is a brand new start.

For 2012 I am grateful. Not the word of my year 2012. But grateful I am all the same.

I am GRATEFUL for my children and my husband. They are precious to me and I know here is where we belong. Here is where we are safe.

I am GRATEFUL for my little sister. She is in many ways my inspiration. She is generous, kind and a lovely person inside and out. It's been so wonderful that she has been able to spend the last month of 2011 with us here in Calgary.

I am GRATEFUL for the comforts of life. The things that I may take for granted on a daily basis but do enjoy and revel in whenever I can. A good meal, a fun night watching a movie, going shopping. Simple things but nevertheless so important to us.

I am GRATEFUL that we have settled in to our new home. From Lara's school to Chris' career. We set out at the start of this year to make a big transition for our family and have now settled in. A lot of paperwork and things to figure out.

This year, I will be another 30-something number. And for all the things I am grateful for, I am humbled.

The challenges of the previous year have been overcome (mostly) and I feel stronger, more able, more capable and resolved.

I have a few things that I want to achieve in 2012, and I will share them with you here but first I wanted to share my new word for 2012..

HAPPY

I worry a lot. Ask anyone. So this year, I want to simply let go and be happy. And I'm looking forward to it. Smiling more. Enjoying more. And doing things to make me happy.

It is a good word for me. And I hope you have a good word for yourself all picked out too.

Happy 2012 dear friends! :)

Happy Birthday Stephanie!! :) :) Blog Hop!

2011-12-19T07:06:00.006-07:00

Because we wanted to make Stephanie feel extra LOVE on her special day...we all decided to make her a card and have a fun blog hop to celebrate her birthday with all our love! :)

I thought I had posted the card but it had disappeared on me! :) Sorry ladies.. here it is now!!

In case you get lost along the way on this hop...never fear...click here.

TWENTY SIX girlies took part today to wish our fabulous big Bella Blvd lady a happy happy Birthday! :) :)

Even though it's Stephanie's birthday, we have some gifts for a few of you lucky readers as well! We know how generous and giving Stephanie is, and we know she would never have a fun blog hop, without a few giveaways up for grabs too. So we got permission from Robin, who works alongside Stephanie in the office, to pick TEN lucky winners, who will each receive a Bella Blvd collection. All you need to do to be entered in the random drawings, is to leave Stephanie your birthday wishes in each of our comment sections. You have lots of opportunities to up your chances, since you can leave a comment on each blog you visit, as you go through the blog hop. There are 26 blogs, plus the Bella Blvd blog, for a total of 27 chances to get your name in the pot. We will randomly choose winners, from 10 randomly choosen blogs, and announce them on Friday the 23rd!

Next stop on this fun hop, is a sweeet sweet talented:

Kimberly Neddo

Thanks for playing along... We're all going to enjoy this day :) :) Happy Birthday again Stephanie!!! :) :)

xoxo
Sue

Scrapbooking, scrapbooking

2011-11-21T20:35:00.003-07:00

I haven't been posting about loads of scrapbooking lately, but I have definitely been scrapbooking.. mostly assignments so they've been posting over at Pencil Lines and Bella Blvd :).

Here are some recent snippets :)

I'm working on my December Daily album which is just about ready to be shared :). It's been a long proccess of working not just with some awesome new papers but also the old stuff I've been keeping and playing with since working on Dec Dailies every year for the past three! :) I'm working on the cover right now.. discovered some Martha Stewart paints and tools that I wanted to play with this year :).

I've missed scrapbooking as intensely as I used to. I guess you could say the baby Lucas who is really not a baby but a BUSY toddler is keeping me busy as heck and I don't have the time I used to, to just play and dabble. So every project is double more precious than the next.

Right now, in my 12 out of 15 waking hours, I'm engrossed in life non-extraordinary. The busy every day. The doing everything and doing nothing. Family, and mainly Lucas. Then Lara.

When I look at this photo, it is exactly what I think my life is like sometimes. The kids just enjoying and going for the ride that life is. And me. I'm seeing the slide heading downwards and feeling the pull of gravity and bracing myself. We're all smiling as we go down together.. but inside, I'm just a bit scared :).

We're doing okay in the rollercoaster of life.. but I'm looking forward to more scrapbooking every night (and knitting too!).

Hope you're having creative lives!
xoxo

Night, night

2011-11-17T21:07:00.003-07:00

Bedtime is sacred.

It has been awhile since the crazy non-sleeping, waking up every two hours, crying, weeping, and not able to settle down.. and that's just me. Especially the crying part. I am a weakling without sleep.

Lucas has gone full circle back to a sleep pattern which is not only reliable but also hopefully 'healthy', not dependent on nursing and willingly closing his eyes as we put him down in bed. I had never known bedtime for babies could be this simple. Albeit we've paid a fair price during month 7 to month 11 of bedtime blues.

This is Lucas with the books he loves to read. He picks them all out and knows all of them by name, mostly. Maybe we need a few new books but he really is attached to some of them, and we go through his favorites frequently. He's even picking out Lara's books from her shelves and points to the words in them, pretending to read. Cute, right? Yes.

Don't let all this positive talk fool you though. The hours between 6.30am and 6pm are up and down still (mostly down). This is a BUSY little guy - he picks up everything, climbs on everything, explores every nook and cranny and just gets his grubby fingers in everything. Seriously. Dude.

So right now, I'm thankful for bedtime. And looking forward to 7pm when I am woken up by the boy at 6.30, or 5.30.. depending.

Ah, the life. On the other hand, Instagram is cool, isn't it?

13

2011-11-05T09:27:00.000-06:00

Lucas is 13 months already!

An honest mother would say that sometimes the time can't go fast enough.

Grow up faster child so I won't have to run after you before you get to the stairs.

Grow up faster child so I won't have to deal with these tantrums.

Learn to speak child so I can understand what your sounds mean.

I guess there are those days too.

Who am I kidding? Those days dot my calendar and make up a lot of my weeks and months so far. This past months have been especially dangerous because he's been gaining more independence without understanding and that can be additionally challenging.

But guess what?

He kisses and kisses me. He's the most loving child I know. So many warm cuddles and hugs in abundance. He's the nicest kid on the block. I'm so surprised at how much affection he is able to show me and his sister and his dad.

He is the most adorable to Lara when her school bell has rung and we stand in the line alongside her and say 'Goodbye'. He doesn't ever stop giving her kisses as he bends low out of my arms to reach her. So adorable. And Lara laps it up.

And so do I. Extra kisses for mummy, Lucas :).

We're waiting for him to say his first real words to accompany his heightened sense of awareness. The kid notices birds in the trees, and every single truck that passes by. It's totally uncanny. And adorable.

Yes, smitten is a good word for me at the moment.

I'm smitten with this 13 month old boy. Smitten but very tired.

xoxo.

See you after the weekend! Have a good one!

Cards That Care Blog Hop!

2011-11-04T05:00:00.004-06:00

So very happy to take part in this year's Cards That Care Blog hop! For more details on how to be part of this initiative, please see Vera's blog. And there are PRIZES PRIZES PRIZES so click on the link and have a peek!

If you're visiting me for the first time from Wendy's page then WELCOME :) :)!!! Please leave me a comment to let me know you stopped by!

I've prepared some fun Christmas and Holiday Cards using the Bella Blvd Christmas Wishes collection!

Here is the list of ladies taking part!

Vera Yates: http://lingshappyplace.blogspot.com

Jennifer McGuire: http://jennifermcguireink.com

Kelly Marie: http://lawnfawn.blogspot.com

Laurel Beard: http://www.laurelbeard.wordpress.com/

Lynette Kauffman: http://www.nettersnotables.blogspot.com

Melania Deasy: http://www.melaniadeasy.blogspot.com

Amy Kolling : http:// www.stamp-n-paradise.blogspot.com

Cathy Fong: http://allbycathyfong.blogspot.com/

Brandi: http://www.yankeebellestamper.blogspot.com

Christy: http://christygetscrafty.blogspot.com/

Cristina Kowalczyk: http://mypapersecret.blogspot.com/

Stephanie Muzzulin: http://www.handmade75.blogspot.com

Judy Marino: http://www.judyscardcorner.blogspot.com

Annie Lung: http://anniescreations808.blogspot.com

Laurel Seabrook: http://www.want2scrap.blogspot.com

Rachel Isakowicz: http://www.seizethestamp.blogspot.com/

Kathy Racoosin: http://thedailymarker.blogspot.com

Amy Tsuruta: http://tsurutadesigns.blogspot.com

Kelly Bertram: http://kellybertram.blogspot.com

Sheri Feypel - http://www.thedesperatescrapper.blogspot.com/

Kathy Martin - http://www.card-blanc.blogspot.com/

Becky Williams - http://www.onescrappinmama.blogspot.com/

Alice Carman - http://alicecarman.wordpress.com/

Wendy Morris - http://www.scrapnspire.blogspot.com/

Sue Mylde - http://justperspective.blogspot.com/

Gretchen McElveen - http://www.gretchenmac.blogspot.com/

Loredana Bucaria - http://www.lovescraplife.typepad.com/

Deanna Misner - http://www.deannamisner.blogspot.com/

Kimberly Neddo - http://www.kimberlygarofolo.typepad.com/

Sweet Stamp Shop: http://sweetstampshop.blogspot.com

Savannah O'Gwynn: http://savannahland2.blogspot.com

Aga: http://justmadefrompaper.blogspot.com/

Donna Mikasa: http://3umbrellas.blogspot.com/

Nicole Rixon: http://www.onesweetromance.com/

Trinh Arietta: http://www.cardediem.com

Monika Wright: http://iloveitallwithmonikawright.blogspot.com

Brenda Urbanik: http://infinite-possibilities.blogspot.com

Joy Meadows: http://www.morningglorycardstudio.blogspot.com

Annette Allen: http://myclevercreations.blogspot.com/

Samantha LaRoe: http://www.samsscrapcandy.blogspot.com

Karin Akesdotter: http://peppermintpattys-papercraft.blogspot.com/

Jenny Suchin: http://suchins.blogspot.com

Anita Recksiedler: http://craftygrldesigns.blogspot.com/

Giovana Smith: http://giovana-believe.blogspot.com/

Hope these cards put you in a somewhat holiday mood :)....

Please go on ahead to Gretchen's blog to see her Holiday Cards!

xoxo,
Sue

Halloween Reflections and more

2011-11-01T20:49:00.002-06:00

It was a fun Halloween :)... we were over at a classmate and friend's home and the children went out and about in the cool night afterwards.

Lucas was the shark! Lara was a 'star pixie'. The did well and Lara was a very good trick-or-treater :).

This is one of the most elaborate houses in our neighbourhood. It's a beautiful house on the best of days and the owners went all out. So perfectly scary :). The kid who is with the light saber was only brave enough when Lara went up with her. It was quite funny :).

And today is the first of November - and Luc is 13 months :).

This is one of Lucas' favorite things to do!

The cupboard and all the plastic cups, plates, things, anything I put in there comes out and has a play on the floor with him (thank goodness I have a dishwasher!).

He is doing really well and converses with all sorts of sounds daily :). He distinctly says ta-ta for kakak (the Malay word for big sister) when he goes into her room and he knows his da-da for daddy. I'm yet to be called, but always needed :). I guess he doesn't need to call me when he just has to look and point :).

I'm off to do some scrapbooking tonight. I can't wait to get to it since I've been a bit occupied with things unscrappy of late.

:) Happy November everyone!

You are my pum-kins

2011-10-31T12:24:00.004-06:00

Yes, it did hurt when I fell off the face of the earth, somewhat :).

It's been a long time between posts and I do apologise. Sometimes life goes all haywire and you don't know which way you're heading but you just keep on going. That's what it feels like some of these days.

But we're all doing well and preparations for Halloween are well on the way. The pumpkins (Lara spells them pum-kins - so cute!), have found a spot on our porch (photos of those later).. but before they were carved, we had a chance to play with them in our backyard..

When I say play, I mean photo shoot :

Lucas LOVES pumpkins and points at every pumpkin he sees! He loves to grab them and try to push them and kick them like a ball. It's so funny to watch him.

Our backyard (which has no trees) has taken in leaves from all the neighbours yards, so we did a fair bit of raking last week, which was fun for the kids! Lara was a helpful little princess who put all the leaves away in bags.

I loved carving these pumpkins. The gooey stuff just drives me crazy but once the job is done and the pumpkins look ready for their jack-o-lantern faces.. that just makes me smile.

This year, Lara wanted the seeds roasted, because that's what they did in school. Unfortunately my roasting recipe didn't work as well as I'd like. So they don't taste terribly yummy.. but they did roast :).

Today we got our first snowfall in Calgary and it looked so beautiful. The snow has duly melted with the strong sunshine, however, which is just as well because I'd hate for the kids to go out trick-or-treating in slushy winter snow.

We're looking forward to tonight's revelries! The camera is at the ready. And the children are going to be bundled up trick-or-treaters (I hope!).. It's our first real trick-or-treating in a neighbourhood and we are so looking forward to it!

In the meantime, a spot of lunch and a rest :) before tonight is in order, I think...

Happy Halloween to all of yous and have a lovely, fun, safe day!

xoxo.

Bella Blvd Mid-Release TODAY!

2011-10-24T14:28:00.002-06:00

Today is the big day for Bella's big mid-releases : Spring Fling & Easter Things and Winter Wonder...so come and get it over on the Bella Blvd site.

Check out the talented Bella Blvd DTs work on the blog today too! Awesome stuff ladies! :)

Happy Monday girlies!

It's boo-ginning to look a lot like..

2011-10-22T11:36:00.003-06:00

Halloweeeen :)

We bought our pumpkins today and are planning on a carving day soon - although I'm SO not looking forward to the mess. And these North American pumpkins are HUGE!

Over at the Bella Blvd site, we've got some cute Halloween Projects to wow at including mine:

Some 'Too Cute To Spook' Paper which is just soooo adorable! This is my first time doing a Halloween themed layout and I love those little figurines and fussycutting those spider webs :). Love love love details!

In other Halloween related news, here is Lucas the Shark. This is how Lucas started walking and he's still doing it sometimes, just for balance.. but it looks as if the sharkboy is coming to get you, doesn't it? :) With sharp teeth and everything? :) CUTE!
We are asking you to vote here for Lucas :) :) Please click on the link to "LIke' and then WOW this little guy's photo :) :).

We really really appreciate it! :)

:) That's what he's wearing this Halloween, trick-or-treating in his stroller, believe it or not? :)

Have a good weekend everyone!

xoxo,
Sue

On Lara

2011-10-20T20:21:00.001-06:00

My sweetheart. She is that and more. I would do anything for her.

Life as a seven year old growing up must be tough. I remember my life and what I had to do when I was seven. Lots of adjustments and negotiations and finding your place in the whole big scheme of things as the world gradually opens up to you. It's crazy sometimes. And that's okay. And that's also what mummies are for.

It's been a challenging few months for Lara in terms of adjustments, for our whole family really but Lara has changed schools, changed friends, changed rooms, and add to that parents who have to adjust too, it's admittedly a lot for a little girl.

But Lara is doing so well so far. A few typical age 'glitches' but that's only normal. We are so very proud of all her reading, and 'growing up' that she's doing.

And she's really looking forward to Halloween and Halloween-related things happening soon!

And she's also 'Smashing' in her Smash book right along with me :). I'm going to post her pages soon! :) They're so cute! Her story-writing abilities are just awesome for her age.

I guess I can't help this 'gushing' mum post because I'm so happy about my little baby girl :) who's not really 'baby' any more :). Here's to this sweetheart of mine.. ;)

(layout sneaks from Spring Flings & Easter Things Collection by Bella Blvd)

Where does life take you..?

2011-10-19T11:50:00.000-06:00

Today life took me to play group with Lucas where I met other moms with toddlers who chatted, shared, played and had adult conversations which made me laugh and smile.

Yesterday life took me to the bank and the doctor's office to set up our family doctor. We spent more time at the bank than we wanted to, but came home with yummy cupcakes for dessert.

This week I've been to the gym once for Zumba class for the FIRST time. Lucas was in the creche / daycare and he certainly had fun.

This month my baby turned one year and I feel so proud of the achievements he has gone through.

This month I started my editing job again - something I thoroughly enjoy.

This month I started my scrapbook designing for Bella Blvd and I'm so enjoying working with the Bella Blvd team!

Here are some scrapbook peeks to share :)

Life takes me through ups and downs but I'm getting through the days. And look, I've had time to blog with you to share a bit of my life..

What about you? :) Will you share something with me..?

xoxo,
Sue

On cakes & other things

2011-10-15T20:21:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to share with you a pic of the cake that Lucas got for his birthday. It's fondant and a good buttercream sponge cake inside.

It's my first time ever with fondant and I was so proud of me :).

I must say though, the cake-eating in this family could do with some improvement.

My beloved family members are keen on eating plain vanilla sponge cakes but when I try to do stylish flavorful cakes like chocolate sponge with marshmallow whipped cream or the lemony sponge from this book, well, not so popular. The cakes are delicious.. they just like the simple stuff :).

The most important thing is this little guy liked it :).

We're all past the sickness that was through this household last week. It's all recovery now and getting things back into place.

I'm back at my scrapbooking desk and today, we received an order of Smash books :). I'm so pleased that Lara is really excited about Smashing and we're both looking forward to this weekend of working together on our Smash :). She's got one and I've got another.. and we're sharing accessories! :)

Have a great weekend ahead! And a thousand apologies for the lack of posts this past week. Recovery has been priority.. and we're hopefully all there now. :)

xoxo
s.

On birthdays and other childish things

2011-10-07T12:03:00.001-06:00

Do not adjust your screen. This picture is blur. It's Lucas, 'I'm full and I'm funny' expression, complete with shaking and giggling. The dude put yogurt all over his hair while having a snack.
Sigh.

This picture was taken a few days ago, and this post started a few days ago too.

Lucas promptly turned one on the 1st of October and then the night after the party, Lara got sick with a stomach bug followed by me and then Lucas. So not been a great week for us.

Nevertheless, here we are.

Lucas turned one last Saturday and it was brilliant.

The start of a truly confident young man.

With a sense of humour.

A sense of adventure.

He laughs at himself and at his sister and me and daddy.

He climbs up and down the stairs by himself (monitored, of course).

He communicates by pointing and grins and smiles.

He plays with Duplo.

He loves toys that make lots of noise.

His sister adores him.

He pours out the hugs and kisses.

He's a cuddler. He loves to nestle his head under my neck and stay there.

He loves cars and trucks and makes a 'zoooom' sound while playing with them. It's darling.

On his first birthday, he had a cupcake. He loved it.

And asked for more. He thought it was delish. And we couldn't give him more than half. Really :).

It's been a great ride so far with this little one and we're so excited for more.

He is set to give us a run for our money. And he's just getting started.

It feels good to celebrate this little boy.

More birthday stories and photos to come.

But for now, he's up from his nap.

Gotta go.
xoxo

Bella Blvd DT :)

2011-10-05T08:47:00.007-06:00

A BIG Hello if you've stopped by from the Bella Blvd blog today! Hope you'll leave me a comment here to let me know you've been :). I'd love to hear from you -- and comments are always nice :).

Bella Blvd are doing a highlight on all the DT Girls on their blog and today is my turn! :)

So exciting to be featured today -- I've had so much fun creating these for the submission and finally being able to share is cool.

Here are the close-ups of two layouts that are being featured on the Bella Blvd blog today.

And here's another that I made. I just love these clouds and have been using them in abundance lately :).

I love the 'design' aspect of this layout - the circle patterned paper, the circular buttons and the big 'circle' flower shape - rule of three :).

Don't forget Bella Blvd are also giving away their mid-releases this week so you won't want to miss that! Pop by the blog for more !

In other news, Lara and me are out for the count with stomach bug. It's horrid and apparently there's something going around. We're trying to make sure our boys don't get it from us!!

Hope your day goes better than mine :).

xoxo
Sue

Bella Blvd New Releases!!

2011-10-03T19:43:00.005-06:00

Check these out hot off the press! Bella Blvd's fun New Releases!

Here are some of my faves from the Winter Wonder Collection.

Just love the fonts and the snowmen in this one:

Chevrons!

I love snowflakes in so many different colors and shapes!

See more here.

Here are a few of my Spring Fling Faves. Another newly released collection!

The umbrellas are awesome!

Flowers to die for :). In all the brightest shades!

My fave in this collection so far is the 'Cute Cuts' :). That bee, the rainbow, the umbrella! So many fun things to play with.

See the rest of the newly released goodies here and here!

And the best part? They are already on their way to us -- and the US design team members have already got their goodies!

I love being a Bella Blvd DT girlie :)!

And you can get a chance to win these collections too! Check the Bella Blvd blog to find out about your three chances to win! Contest ends Friday, 7 October.

xoxo,
Sue

WCMD 2011

2011-10-03T10:07:00.004-06:00

World Card Making Day is here (or was here). And given the crazy schedule this weekend, and last night's debacle with Ms. Potty for Miss Lara, well.. (TMI? Sorry.. It had to be explained).

Nevertheless, here are my WCMD creations to share.

I wanted to make use of the sentiments and cupcakes I had from one of the Bella Blvd Collections and play with some of my stash too. The bookmark is for my sweet Lara. :)

The Bella Blvd DT has also shared some of their creations so pop by the blog to check those out!

Happy Monday everyone! :) Coming soon are my birthday posts with pics of Luc :). Thanks for all your kind wishes so far!

xoxo,
Sue

This is Lucas Week

2011-09-29T10:30:00.003-06:00

My baby boy is turning one this week. It's a big celebration of a little baby taking steps to being a boy.

We are so excited.

Presents.

Cake.

Friends.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share this mosaic with you. Pics taken on the weekend of a funny boy who laughs at himself and all of us. He's got the perfect sense of humor for a joker, an entertainer, a comedian.. :).

Watch this space Comedy Central!

True colors

2011-09-27T20:26:00.004-06:00

A good weekend past, and a busy week coming up with things to plan (someone has a big birthday this weekend), and execute.

Looking forward to World Card Making Day this weekend too.. and I've got some sweet goodies to share here :).

Excuse the short post but I wanted to say I'm hear, still treading water and breathing.

And camera holding.

This was the view outside our bedroom balcony at 6.30am on one fuzzy weekend morning. It was so beautiful I couldn't resist the photo. I have not edited the photo (besides adding the watermark) - it is the true colors of the morning.

Beautiful, right?

:) Happy Tuesday!

xoxo

These kids..

2011-09-23T13:47:00.000-06:00

Been playing with my paints and mists and masks lately. I can't help it, can you? It's so fun to be able to create these textures on your pages and I just give in to the call of the 'messy' whenever I sit down to create :).

So here are two layouts I've been playing with lately. I created the flowers on this page using these huge flower punches by Punch Magic. I don't bring it out often enough and I just love the 3-d effect of these flowers on the page.

The story is simple and very much embedded in my life at the moment. These kids. And who would have guessed that I would have TWO instead of just the ONE. And that number two is just as perfect as the first one.

This one is also about paint and mess. I've loved the Tim Holtz Crackle Paint and have not always found a place to use it. With the 'trouble' layout below.. I had no trouble just splashing it on.

I then played with some Jenni Bowlin paint and layered it on top of the crackle paint, and also on the Alphas!

I love the title of this page too :).

Hello Trouble, your name is Lucas!

These kids are such a big part of my life right now. I'm focused on them. Their lives, their development, what they eat, when they sleep, where they play. I just love love love them.

Lucas has taken so much of my energy these days. I find myself trying to balance all that I want to achieve during the day, and all that I want to achieve with him. My days are busy, filled with the satisfaction of seeing him grow, develop, change. Every mini step, mini development is a big thing, but he's also a handful.

And a funny handful too. :) See post on heart attack. Run, explore, eat off the floor.. :) He is a super super busy dude... :) and a lot of trouble...

But we love him.. SO much. Him and those chubby cheeks!

Have a lovely weekend dear friends!

xoxo,
Sue.

Enchanting

2011-09-22T07:23:00.003-06:00

Of all the embellishments in the world, I must say that I love anything with words and of course gorgeous letters for my pages.

The latest set of alphas from American Crafts has really got me tickled and I was even more delighted by my Studio Calico kit 'Glee' that I got this past week! Therein was the Amy Tan alphas used in this layout below --

Here they are up close -

Aren't they yummy-licious? Really fun.

We got this photo taken on Lara's birthday - one of those good and lucky shots indoors. My two children and me. It's not often we get such a cute pic together :). I'm usually the one with the camera, of course.

A lot of yellow/orange misting on this page. Just love the Studio Calico Mister Hueys this week (I've unpacked them and playing with them again is so much fun!).

That camera stamp is also so adorable! I can't believe how much fun I've had scrapping this week - and so grateful for my Studio Calico kit that I got as a gift from my family for my birthday :). It's been a great stress reliever for all those unpacking and packing nights.. and days!

This evening, I'm spending on watching TV. So many fun shows starting/started this week -- I'm a HUGE TV slave :)... and I've been recording them all on the TIVO box :) :). There's Grey's Anatomy, Body of Proof, Castle, Big Bang Theory.. gosh.. I watch'em all.

What's your favorite TV show? :)

B is for book

2011-09-20T07:45:00.001-06:00

*layout out for publication*

Our family is one that enjoys books. And Lucas is slowly starting to get it. He listens to books before bedtime, and during the day too. Introducing and encouraging the love of books is so very rewarding with him because he's so receptive!

He loves the touchy feely books with textures too..!

But one of the things he loves to do to books is to chew'em.. he sucks on his board books - a habit we're trying to stop!

*layout out for publication*

I used the Studio Calico kit Glee on this one! Love the bits and pieces and colors of the kit. And added some of my own mists :).

Yes, the scrapbooker is back! :) Look for more layouts later in the week!

xoxo
Sue

"How to bring your mother closer to a heart attack"

2011-09-19T09:58:00.005-06:00

by Lucas Mylde

1. Climb the stairs by crawling fast, without adult supervision.

2. Climb the stairs by crawling fast, without adult supervision, then at the third step, stand up and try to balance, since you can't really walk yet. Some almost falling action will help.

3. Crawl to the nearest thing you can see on the floor, and try to eat it up. Even better if it's one of your big sister's Polly Pocket accessories.

4. When trying to eat up any thing you see on the floor, make choking noises. Even if it's a cheerio that fell of your breakfast table.

5. Climb on to the window sill, even if the window is not open. Your mother will be worried you are strong enough to open the window. Those heart palpitations will come along fast.

6. Climb on to the sofa then surface dive downwards head first. Watch the people around you scramble to catch you. Laugh maniacally.

7. When given food you don't like (spinach, seriously?) spit it up. Don't just regurgitate it, do a raspberry blowing noise while you're at it. The stuff they're trying to give you will spew everywhere. Serves mummy right for wearing those white pants after Labor Day.

8. Open all the cupboards in the kitchen and take all the stuff out. Reach for the glass bowls and wait for the "Noooo!" then turn around at mummy and laugh maniacally.

9. Crawl fast to the fridge when the door is opened and reach for the milk and juice in the door. Repeat maniacal laugh when mummy says "No!"

10. Scream whenever you're put into the play cot. Add tears. If she's got dinner to put on the table, she'll get even more frustrated. After three minutes, quiet down and play. And if she's silly enough to give you eye contact, scream again. Add more tears. Repeat.

And when you've done all the above in one day, climb on to mummy's lap and hug her and give her kisses and stroke her cheeks. She'll still love you, and hug you and shower you with kisses, and say "I love you".

You can be assured of another day of doing all of the above. Again.

:) Happy Monday, everyone!!

Bella Blvd DT!

2011-09-14T07:30:00.001-06:00

As promised, some really good and fun news.. :)

Can you see my name up there? :) :)

So many emotions at the same time, to be chosen, to be part of this awesome team for 2011-2012 over at Bella Blvd!

Congratulations to all my fellow team mates and I look forward to working together with you!!

Feel so blessed and so very thankful for being chosen!

Here is a glimpse of one of the layouts I submitted. I love this layout about Lucas who is really becoming a little 'buddy' and very good company around here..

Played along using some cool Bella Blvd papers, stickers and some Studio Calico stamps :). LOVE!

Thanks to Stephanie and Laura for the opportunity to play along and work for Bella this next year! It's going to be awesome!

xoxo,
Sue

September Weekend II

2011-09-12T11:03:00.005-06:00

A really eventful weekend, with loads of things done. The house is slowly getting back in to place, although who would have thought a family of four could have so many clothes, books and just plain things, not to mention the scrapbooking paraphernalia that I'm still busy sorting out. But at least I have a desk surface to work at now (pictures soon!).

Saturday was spent at home and then soccer evaluations and Lara had a great time (I forgot my camera)... we are planning to include soccer in her schedule this year, along with some other fun things.

Sunday, we went to the Spruce Meadows Masters competition to join in the revelries there on such a beautiful day. It was fabulous. We caught some majestic horses including the RCMP riders.

We also joined in the fun cheering the riders and horses as they went through some tough jumps. It was really fun to watch and Lara enjoyed cheering - and Lucas paid attention, or tried to at least.

The horse competition also meant pony rides and of course Lara got to ride on a pony which she just loved loved loved. She looks beautiful on the horse :) and she got to ride the one she wanted (there were a few horses on the mini course).

The children also got to do some playground activities and Lucas started off walking around on the pebbles, which he loves - both sounds and textures. We have to be careful with this one, he's an eater and an experimenter. He LOVES to put things in his mouth. Dang-it!

The best fun for Lucas was on the slides.. by himself...

...then with his big sister.

Loads of belly-laughter - the kid is such a joker. Love him so much.

As a treat though, we thought this would be the last 'summer' warm day in Calgary so we got ice cream -- and guess who had his first taste of Purdy's Vanilla ice cream? Delicious. He was so upset when we started walking and he had to stop eating. So funny.

On Sunday night, Lara did something amazing. Which I won't share yet... we will wait until next weekend when things get clearer and we know more.

But can I just say, this girl, is AMAZING? :)

I know, I'm biased. But she truly is.

We are hoping to get some more 'put away' done this week and hopefully that will be that. Our adventures in Calgary are just beginning and I'm so looking forward to us doing more and having loads of fun with both these kids. The biggest and best feeling is that we are starting to live a full and happy life here in our new home. A family life that we've been searching for and we feel good about our choices and our decisions.

The weather is changing and the cold is starting to descend on us, but our spirits are warm and happy. And we look forward to life's wonderful challenges and surprises.

Hope you are doing well too..

I have some scrappy news to share, so look out for that soon! :)

Happy Monday everyone!

xoxo.
Sue

New things

2011-09-06T22:17:00.005-06:00

Lots of new things happening around here:

Summer's out and school's back. Here's Lara starting off last week. It was a cool morning and gloves were required. There have been lots of smiles this past week. She is very happy and we are so proud of how she is doing. Hoping she'll be making lots of friends at her new school.

With our worldly possessions back in our possession, we are now working on getting back into place and one of my top priorities is to get my workspace back into use.. and my scrapbooking studio. Hooray!

We are still box-bound and still having to sort, unpack, and settle things but hey, we're almost there so it's all good.

I'm excited to get back into scrapbooking and worked on some layouts these past two days which I can't show you just yet..:( but I will do shortly! :)

Not a long post this time but there's boxes to unpack so I better head off :).

xoxo,
Sue

32

2011-09-01T00:31:00.012-06:00

A lot can happen in 32 years. And a lot can happen in just three. My thirties have so far been a delicious mix of creativity, passion, adaptation, growth, and love. I've had so many challenges both on a personal and creative front and I find myself learning so much and having so much achieved.

Some of my favorite highlights of life right now:

Motherhood. Being a mother defines a lot of me and what I do these days. Just the way it is.

Children. I'm so proud and feel so lucky to have a girl and a boy. Although I felt unsure of how to be a mother to a boy, but I'm privileged to be able to learn along the way.

Marriage. Being a wife to the sweetest man alive. Such an honour and a privilege.

Photography. Learning how to use my DSLR and getting better at it everyday. Seeing life through a lens and the ability to capture the moments. Love.

Travelling the world. I've always dreamed of seeing different parts of the world and I'm so glad that I've been to most continents and many countries :).

Living in so many different places. I've known many more moving vans, moving crews and papercuts from cardboard boxes than I'd like but I'm so grateful for all the experiences I've had. Both good and not so.

Friends. I'm so grateful for all my friends who've kept in touch, like facebook statuses, laugh on the phone with me and cheered me on. I can only hope I'm a good friend right back.

Balance. Finding balance makes for a happier me. And I'm working on this every day.

Reading. I love my Kindle and the book I'm reading right now. I'm an eclectic reader with so many different favorites from youth fiction to historical fiction to biographies. I love words.

Stories and writing. I love telling stories on my layouts and this has transferred to a love of storytelling for myself and my children. I hope this will play a part in my future as I create new dreams for my future self.

Nature. I am developing a renewed love for nature. Living in this beautiful country has opened my eyes to the possibilities that nature affords. I was so excited on my birthday when we went for a walk at Inglewood and saw these beauties in the grass across the stream from us. They were not afraid and gave us ample opportunity to take photos. These were priceless. My first time seeing these animals outside of a zoo.

Scrapbooking. I'm ready for new challenges in one of my dearest creative hobbies. The new studio I have is wonderful and I'm so thankful for its potential. I'm hoping for more beautiful things in my future and more scrapbook stories to share here.

So dear friends, I hope your life is filled with love this Labor Day weekend. I'm sorry for the delayed postings. The recent days have been busy with our goods having arrived from storage, our family is busy moving in and setting up.

But all is well so I'll post more soon.

Lots of love,
Sue
xoxo.

The post that got away

2011-08-24T20:35:00.005-06:00

It's been swimming around in my head for weeks but the moment I sit down to post, I forget and post about something else. So today, here it is: Lucas.

Lucas is a big part of our daily crazies. He's been taken around the world, there's been a lot of flights for this little guy. A lot of flying hours, a lot of take offs and landings. A number of airport securities. Also, a lot of bad eating habits, a lot of bad sleeping habits over the past month were developed because of our travels. But he's really taken it in his stride (and bad sleeping habits don't bother him! He loves waking up in the middle of the night anyway!).

This past month, his development has been overwhelming and we're watching him grow and do new things every day.

Right now he can:

Say mama and dada like he knows what he's talking about.

Show his tongue on request. (we're working on his ears, that's loads of fun because he's ticklish right there!)

Wave 'bye-bye'. He has a two-second delay though, so usually people miss his waves.. they come right after we walk away. :)

Do the actions for 'twinkle-twinkle'.

Shake his head 'no-no-no-no'.

Nod his head 'yes-yes-yes'.

Smile, and LAUGH - you should really hear him laugh. He has a cute sense of humor and will really laugh without the need for tickling!

Sway to music. So adorable. He loves Elmo. And Bruno Mars. And Selena Gomez. And Katy Perry. And Justin Beiber (thanks Lara!)

Hug.

Kiss and make the kissing sound too!

And the latest cutest milestone is the clapping hands.

His diet is improving, although still nursing healthily, he's in love with beef, broccoli, pasta, chicken, spinach (favorite - huge favorite!). The teething (FOUR TEETH!) makes eating difficult, but we're working on it.

He's a big adventurer and explorer and just loves loves loves crawling around and climbing on everything. Yikes. He's a big explorer with his tongue too - never leave crumbs on the floor!

So you see, Lucas, is doing really well. I'm trying my best to cope with his fast growing development and big needs! He's getting bumps every day and we hate that but it's all a part of his exploration in our current (tiny) home. He is okay otherwise though, and knows how to sit still when we take his temperature in his ear, for the most part. Handy just in case it's needed to check for the bumps giving him a fever.

He's a fun kid to have around, always interacting with his big sister, and being a big nosey to whatever she's doing - Lego is big around here these days, and Lucas the quick-picker-upper-eater has to stay away.. and Lara is really good about warning us that he's near :).

Despite this, all's good. He's really fitting in around here. Making his mark. Making all of us love him and enjoy his cuddles. And it's exciting. When Lara starts school, there'll be a different dynamic and a different lot of activities for us to enjoy together. And I'm looking forward to that.

But in the meantime, we're all enjoying this little guy. Especially Lara. Who loves him to no end. And wants to show what a wonderful big sister she is. All the time.

I'm so proud of the two of them. So much love lives here. And we're so very grateful for that.

xoxo.

Life is a ferris wheel..

2011-08-23T20:24:00.004-06:00

..you're up sometimes, down sometimes but you're always going.

It feels like we're always going here. Which is good. But busy.

We've had teething a lot around here. Lara is teething (her newest front tooth is coming!) and Lucas has swollen gums from the new teeth making their showing. He's got 2 more showing already, but I'm wondering if he's going through some dentition on some more. Poor little gums.

We've also got many things on our plate. Lara starts school in a few days and that's pretty exciting, no uniform means clothes to pick out in the morning. No lunch chef means bringing in a lunch box, and we're also going to find out more about the school supplies that we actually need for her tomorrow when we register her at her new school.

We're excited to move into our new house in a few days too. It will be good. Finally a place to rest for a good while and imagine, we'll be getting our things back from storage. That means, people:
SCRAPBOOKING!

I cannot even begin to say how impossible it's been for me inside, to not create, to not cut, play and paste paper and beautiful things. I'm in withdrawal. Bad. :) I can't wait to set up a new space, to get all my 'inspired ideas' over the last months all in motion. I'm very very excited.

And I've been looking at the PB catalog. Not real.

Fun baskets, accessories and decor. Love.

I'm tingly inside :).

To top it all off, I'm celebrating a birthday this weekend. Yes, mine :). And to celebrate here on my blog, there's going to be a fun giveaway so stay tuned!

In the meantime, hope your week is busy and fun! :)

xoxo

Seven: Birthday report

2011-08-19T08:17:00.007-06:00

This was my little girl when she woke up to her birthday morning! She came in to us to ask us if we could help her bring the presents in to our room so we can open them together (like we do every year on her birthday).

It was extra special this year because Lucas was there to play with the paper and hang about touching everything. But Lara was happy to share and wanted to open the present from Lucas first.

So she's seven now.

Lovelier, taller, chattier, confident, a HUGE reader, a thinker, and oh so sweet.

It's hard to believe she looked like this once. Taken on her first birthday in Toronto. She's lost all but one of those four front baby teeth!

We spent the morning present playing, Harry Potter Lego being a HUGE hit, along with a Magical Horses book she has been craving, and the one she talks about most of all, her new camera. We then had a sushi lunch, then spent the rest of the day at a bookstore, followed by dinner and cake at home.

Lara's bedtime reading were newly acquired Neil Gaiman's Coraline, and Riordan's Red Pyramid. She's come to the level of reading books I'm interested in myself.. so even more fun to read together, but since last summer, she's been reading herself to bed by herself.. one of those other signs that she's really "not a baby anymore".

She went to bed happy. And we're happy for her. Because she also got the thing she wanted 'most' for her birthday: A true big hug from her little brother. He obliged. And added a few kisses (yes he does that too now).

Who could ask for more?

3 wants.

2011-08-13T21:18:00.005-06:00

1. HARRY. I'm still waiting to watch how it ends. I know it has been out for a whole month. But a mummy to a baby doesn't get the privilege, unfortunately. So I've had to contend myself watching re-runs of all the other Potters on TV. I may be luckier when it comes out on Blu-Ray.

2.
ICE CREAM. I have no idea what's wrong with me but I've been hankering for one of these. Something sweet and crunchy. Something with oreos or peanut butter cups. Gosh. My mind is playing tricks on my cellulite. Tsk.

3.
CREATING. I love these crochet flowers created by my friend Laura (photo from her blog). I have been crocheting for awhile but this past month of NOT MUCH CREATING is driving me positively batty. And seeing pictures of creative stuff has made me crave crave crave my creating 'things' so I can create too.. I've been working on two things: Our 'Rock Mountain' Adventures Journal and the Summer Escape journal, both of which I just LOVE. But I'm dying to create more and miss my needles and hooks for knitting and crocheting that I've been doing alongside.

What are you wanting this weekend? :)

So far, so good..

2011-08-12T23:33:00.003-06:00

So, Calgary.

It's been a good start.

The people here are generally lovely. They give way, they smile, they greet, they are very polite. It's a pleasant place to live.

The weather has been awesome so far. We unfortunately encountered one hailstorm where all the cars just stopped to the side of the road and the hailstones were pelting the car really hard, and Lucas started crying. We were scared and took shelter in a public carpark building at a hospital. Thank goodness it was around the corner from us at the time. But other than that, we've had a gorgeous summer. The Calgary sun is all it promised to be. Sunny.

We're getting to know the areas around us and around where we will live come September. There's a lovely public library which was full of people - I've never seen a library so full of people since my days as a university student! There were children, parents, grandparents, caregivers, and it was a Friday afternoon! I was pleasantly surprised. The library will be a short drive from our home. I'm excited about that!

We've had a great visit to Banff last week and we're still talking about it. It's so lovely to have such access to a National Park and we hope to make full use of it being so near to us now. The mountains are a great sight to behold even when we are in the city. Lara always points it out whenever we're driving west. Cute.

It's going to be Lara's birthday in a few days and there is a birthday excitement vibe in our house. We're excited and it will be the first birthday with Lucas. I've got so many birthday and big-girl thoughts about Lara at the moment, which I'll put down on a separate post. There's definitely a big girl living in this house now - she's also lost one of her top front teeth yesterday - so big news!!

So all in all, we soldier on and take in life this summer.

So far, so good.

Dr Seuss is genius..

2011-08-10T23:46:00.003-06:00

Somewhere in his "Cat in the Hat" series, he managed to quip:

"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."

I've had many wonderful opportunities to sit on design teams this past few years and it's always sad when my term comes to an end. This month I've had to say goodbye to my Cocoa Daisy term which I've served for almost three years. It's been a wonderful ride and I've made so many friends. I've worked as Activity Coordinator, and had so much fun planning and creating projects and more for the message board members. Most of all, I look back on a number of bi-annual crops that I've planned, coordinated and managed alongside a fun and talented team of ladies. Not to mention the albums of scrapbooking layouts I've created!

I've learned a lot and created a lot. I've enjoyed the kits and shared so much laughter and tears with friends from all over the world. It's truly been grand.

There's always sadness in separation but also an excitement in new beginnings. I know this ending means the beginning of a new chapter in my creative and scrapbooking life which I'm already looking forward to.

In the meantime, thank you Cocoa Daisy.

xoxo,
Sue

what we've done this summer

2011-08-08T00:00:00.001-06:00

We've travelled a lot this past month. After Norway we were in Singapore and Malaysia to hang out with family there and also to have a fun well-deserved beach vacation just for us. Then back to Toronto to check out our old haunts, gather some previously loved items from our old apartment, and then back to Calgary.

That's a 24-hour++ journey, and 12-15hour time difference, baby. Crazy much? Yes.

However, amidst the jet-lag, the food issues, and the enormous amount of unpacking and repacking, there was also a lot of fun and a lot of love.

I'll keep posting some much loved photos (sadly discovered that I've lost a batch of photos too!!) so you can see what we've done. They won't be in order though.. I'm in a reminisce mood, not an organised one :).

Here goes..

Luc got cuddles from the senior members of my family.

There was a lot of fun beach and water time..

Compulsory sand-eating. I was two feet away, and took several snaps before he chunked the sand into his mouth... and was promptly whisked into the sea water to get washed.

Meeting old friends.

Doing some fun luge riding.

Hangin' out at Sentosa Island.

Luc having his first ice-cream with the Bobsey Twins :).

Then hanging out with friends in Toronto..

Checking out our old condo building.

More soon :)

You belong with me

2011-08-04T22:09:00.005-06:00

It's been a challenging week, only because we've been house-hunting. So many areas to look at and so many houses. So many things to consider and think about. And that's all part of the excitement of moving to a new place.

Thankfully we've found a splendid new home for us that seems just meant to be now. It is in the area that we had wished for and dreamed about since we were in Aberdeen, so it has worked out brilliantly. The excitement continues, of course. We move September and we're entirely excited! Our container has already arrived in town and we're looking forward to seeing all our stuff again! I'm even more excited to go: "Hello, scrapbooking things! It's been awhile!"

From the scrapbook standpoint, I've been watching with envy all the creative people creating as I go through this past month without being able to stop and cut paper and play.

So many things inspiring me right now, and so lucky to have been inspired on some of my travels. I was at a beautiful store in Singapore, called Ri and I've been in love.

Those pens were to die for. Lara and I got a few pens each and we've promised to share :). It's so cute to shop for stationery with her. And now that she's going back to school with some of her own stationery to be provided, it's a bit more fun to do some 'back-to-school' shopping.

Of course, I'm always looking out for stationery ideas for me. And love these.

Source: None via Ashe on Pinterest

I'm so going to sew me one of these (or for Lara) :). Pattern here.

Source: sew4home.com via Melanie on Pinterest

And good golly, wouldn't you want to organise like this?

Source: blog.craftzine.com via Laura on Pinterest

That scissors on the wall is a nice touch, yes? :)

Now that we're moving in to a new house, I'm also looking for all sorts of new mommy ideas to try, test, buy, and this blog has been quite fun and inspiring. I'm digging the fact that she's in Canada too so inspiration is now local to me :).

I've found some lovely rooms and furniture to inspire the new rooms in my house too.

Source: countryliving.com via Dhana on Pinterest

Source: vintagerosegarden.tumblr.com via dziewczynka on Pinterest

Source: google.com via dziewczynka on Pinterest

Source: potterybarn.com via Tierney on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Camila on Pinterest

This craft room is simply AWESOME :). And so to die for. I love it.

I'm having a big basement which is all done up in the new place, so there is definitely some craft room space for me. Love it.

Today I also found this lovely store in Calgary. It was just divine to go through all the knick-knacks and fun 'must-haves' and 'need-to-haves' :). I'll be back there again for sure!

It's really great fun to be inspired, even while I've not been creating a lot this past few weeks. I know I have a lot stored in my mind and I'm looking forward to creating loads and loads when I get settled in soon enough.

It seems new beginnings and new endings are part of my life right now and while I'm busy with these new beginnings, I have got some sad news to share which I will do when I get accustomed to the news myself. In the meantime, have a lovely weekend and I'll see you at the start of the new week!

xo,
Sue

Every breath I take...

2011-07-31T23:37:00.004-06:00

We're in Canada, and finally in Calgary. What seems like a whole age has passed but it's really been a little bit more than a month since we left our previous home in Aberdeen, Scotland. Since then, the children have been real troopers and we have seen days in Norway (Kristiansund, Trondheim), Germany (Dusseldorf), Singapore, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi) and then a short week in Toronto before finally taking that last 3.75 hour flight to Calgary. It's been a little bit more than 15 or so flights for all of us and really it's been amazing to experience this whole adventure with TWO kids!

The pic above is taken at the foot of the CN Tower in Toronto, one of the most prolific landmarks of Lara's baby/childhood. It was so fun to be back, and to be able to take this cute pic of her right under it.

This week will be all about the settling in. We're in temporary accommodation for a month, while we seek a longer-term abode to call home sweet home. It will be good, and necessary, and very very spiritually uplifting to finally be settled again, to be in a place of calm and routine. Especially for baby Lucas who probably still has no clue which side is up, and when is night or day. The jet lag got him the worse of all.

But we've done a spectacular amount of grocery and 'necessities' shopping (thank you Walmart!) and we're looking forward to house hunting week. There's going to be so much to look forward to and we're so excited together. It's a relief to enjoy Lara's company and listen to her insights and thoughts. She has been so busy as well, mostly reading.

She's on the third book of 'The Chronicles of Narnia' and it is so difficult to separate her from her book! She's a speed-demon-reader! We're so proud and so happy that she loves reading just as much as we do! It's the one thing that we're able to keep her doing and she just loves it :).

The sun sets on another day for us here in Calgary and we're so excited. It feels so good to be here and we're looking forward for all the pieces to fall into place!

So happy you're on this journey with me :).

More soon!
xx.
Sue

Hello blog readers!

2011-07-24T05:25:00.003-06:00

Hi everyone!

How have you been? It's been awhile I know. I've been completely overwhelmed by family, travelling, new insights, jet-lag and at last, we're arrived in Canada!

We're trying hard to adjust to the 12 hour time difference from Singapore, and recovering from our 24+hours of travelling altogether to get to Toronto! With baby in tow.. We're getting there and really looking forward to settling in Calgary in early August.

It's a lot to look forward to, getting a new apartment/house, settling the kids in, enjoying the new place, and, yes, dare I say it: laundry!

Lots to catch you up on.. we really enjoyed all we've done so far, especially our day with my sis and dad at Universal Studios Singapore! Here's a quick pic:

We've all woken up at 4am this morning thanks to the jetlag.. I think Luc is due another nap now though. Slowly but surely.

Will be back with more soon :) Hope your summer is going well!!

xoxo.
Sue

Garden Party

2011-06-26T14:17:00.004-06:00

We had a garden party yesterday and it was a lovely sunny day and not at all like today. The girls had a lovely time - Lara had her second cousin over and they played for a long time together.

We had cake! Again!

It's wonderful how the sun brings out smiles all around. After months of being cooped up with packing, sorting, purging an worrying, I feel free to smile and cuddle and enjoy my kids. And THAT is a really good feeling.

We are happy to be meeting with relatives and some friends and saying goodbye to some of them will be hard. We'll be living on the other side of the planet and may not see them as frequently as we used to but they will always be close to our hearts.

Lara has really enjoyed girly play time in the sun - there were Polly Pockets and Littlest Pet Shops and party clothes with tiaras and hats... all the funnest things to do together with another little girl.

Grandfather (Bestefar) even organised a relay race with the help of Lara and the girls team vs. the boys team (made up of grown ups and the little kids) and the girl team won! :)

Here's Lara posing with a medal and a diploma certificate which she drew up herself with the help of Bestefar! She was very proud of the certificates and even had the opportunity to give them away during the 'prize-giving' ceremony.

Tomorrow we are off to town again and this time we will have a lovely lunch on the pier at a new-ish restaurant - one of the few 'nice' and modern restaurants in this mini city. We are looking forward to it together. We will be 6 grown-ups and 4 little people and I'm sure it will be an adventure.

The holiday is going really well so far. I am having fun reading this book by this author. It is fab and worth every moment on my kindle. Relaxing is a good thing! I'm looking forward to filling up my Summer Mini Album.. and enjoying more family time together.

xoxo,
Sue

Scrapbook On The Road: Calgary II

2011-06-26T03:29:00.002-06:00

Some weeks ago, I posted the bare bones of my Calgary Album with a promise that I will be posting the full album soon. I know it's been awhile, but here is the album, all complete. I'm really happy with how this turned out. This is a happy size for me 5x7 and I adore the use of those jump rings :) which allow me to put loads into my album and still open it easily.

I love using the patterned papers with a 'travel theme' which I've saved as part of my travel stash of embellies and goodies.

The little pocket is fun to put in tags. The rustic textures of the ribbon add a fun dimension to the pages of text and photos.

I love saving and attaching cards and receipts and the tags are a cool way to add these easily!

I've simply added 4x6 photos to this album this time. It makes it easier to just print them at the store and put them in the album...

The aim of this album is not to do something 'complicated' or 'techinque-heavy'. Simply to record these fun memories and the photos we have taken from the trip (or at least some of them!)

These were Fortune Cookies 'fortunes' which we got from our dinner in Calgary. It was fun to have kept these and read them :). I felt like each of the fortunes applied to us perfectly. Funny how that happens sometimes.

I love using stamps in the album and brought these stamps (with a little stamp set) on vacation just in case too :).

Our album for this current summer trip is also ready and I will indeed share it here when I have had the opportunity to edit the photos :).

Main tips for scrapbooking 'on-the-road':

1. DON'T STRESS. Do what you can on the road, write what you like, or write notes on post-its and save them. Enjoy your vacation!

2. TAKE MANY PHOTOS. If you like photos in your album, take as many as you like and pick them out later. Sometimes I plan for a particular type of photo to take (make a list if you're that type of person).

3. SAVE and ATTACH. First, collect things as you go - restaurants give away cards, menus, and there are fun tickets to keep. However, I find that I save too many things on vacation if I don't attach them at once or as soon as I can. It is easy to attach (use Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher or simple glue!) and then throw what cannot fit in the album. Do you need to keep every single receipt? No. Promise.

4. JOURNAL. Maybe it is hard to bring out the words. But start with "Today we.." and see where your words take you. Believe me, it's a good journal if you've captured what you've done and when. That's all you need - chunks of text is bonus! :) :). I journal as I go so I don't forget. If you wait too long, you will forget unless you have a mega memory! Feelings are fun to capture immediately and read later on!

Don't you love documenting your vacation? Link and show me good ones you've done!
Hope your summer adventures are wonderful! Journal it, photo it and savor it!!

xoxo
Sue

Village Life

2011-06-25T09:59:00.008-06:00

Find ourselves chillin' today on grandma's birthday. Lara's grandma that is.

We had a mini trip downtown and it was nice to see some sights new and others old. We've been past this old lady before...

One of Kristiansund's landmarks. The 'Clipfishwoman' honoring those who've worked on preparing the Clipfish..

Lara loved hanging out seeing the birds at Vandamman, although the place which used to be full of ducks and swans is now covered in all too many seagulls. Yeugh.

This cafe is new to us. It was a lovely stop spot but too bad you're looking out at seagulls. Nice to play for the children but we didn't have much time to stop as we were heading towards the boardwalk on the waterfront..

It was a beautiful sunny but windy day. And this is the four of us.. :) I'm glad we got to take two family photos two days in a row. That must be a first for us!! :)

Lucas needs to practice looking at the camera :).

Kristiansund has some beauty about it. I loved walking around the boardwalk with my camera. It's been a long time since I got time to do something like this. The freedom of running around with a camera has been missed. And I remembered how much I love my camera today :)

Birthday celebrations are going well. We've had cake and presents and a lovely dinner. And most of all, the birthday girl got cuddles from the latest baby among her grandchildren.

This was a typical Norwegian cake that we love. I will not learn how to make it. It will be a treat for whenever we come to this part of the world again. It was delish. And I'm going to have another piece later.

Lara spent a lot of time in the garden picking flower bouquets. She loves all the colors of flowers out there and tomorrow I'm hoping to get out there with her. Nature around here is awesome. It's one of the things they have a lot of out here for sure.

Note Lara has been waiting to wear this sparkly dress for a long, long time. She's finally got big enough for it! :) :)

Day two documented. I'm going to cuddle on the couch with my kindle and we may be playing some card game or other with the other grown ups soon. Relaxing like this after months of stress, planning and crazies is really really good. It feels like the noose has loosened. And I can finally relax. Good. Letting go, for all of us.

More tomorrow! :)

xoxo
Sue

The holiday begins..

2011-06-24T13:18:00.004-06:00

The car sold, the house packed, the container loaded and now we're finally on our way.

The container loading was a bit nerve-wrecking, my nails are almost shredded. Half-way through the 20footer, the foreman suggested that it may be a problem to get everything in and I started to panic.. he wasn't 100% sure and of course that would make any scrapbooker nervous, especially when we started having to 'pick' boxes as priority and not to go in..

Thank goodness though, the 1,050 cubic feet was filled to 1,000 cubic feet :D. So everything in. And guess what, Cocoa Daisy boxes are just AWESOME for stuffing the mini places in the container. Yippeeee! :)

All my embellishments, all my alphas, all my papers, and my scrapbooking stash, are on its way to Calgary (along with the clothes, bicycles, and things that make up our lives, of course) :).

Today's adventure was to head to Norway. We have 4 huge suitcases, and 3 small ones that are making their way with us on our 'round the world' family visiting trip and we are excited. We landed in Norway today..and the journey was fine.. although Lucas thought the sleeping on the airplane was probably one of the best parts :)

This is our last picture in Aberdeen. Indeed we've enjoyed ourselves in Bonny Scotland but we are so excited to start our new journey with many new adventures. Scotland will always be in our hearts..

For now, it's vacation! Lara is so excited to hang out on the swings in her grandparents' garden(see previous post for photos of a younger Lara on swings).

BIG SMILES all around. And vacation it is..

Be back with more soon!

live, hope, dream

2011-06-19T18:46:00.003-06:00

Life is full of surprises, challenges, and excitements. We all go through life with our own hopes and dreams. Right now we are fulfilling our dream.

No, not the dream of packing, unpacking and packing again :D.. but there's a lot of that right now too.. The dream of a family, and a life together. And in a country we have loved and loved from afar.

Tomorrow the movers come and bring our things across the world.

Lucas would like to go in a basket of socks. But we're trying to stop him. :)

He's been such a good boy as we're going through these busy days without too much playing with him and giving him attention.. but hey, he's taking it in his stride and we are looking forward to a whole summer of loving our kids.. being busy with suitcases and purging and packing hasn't left us ENOUGH cuddly times..

But these two cuddle as much as they can:

She is such a good reader and I hope she passes that love on to him!! So lovely, right? We think so.

I should be in bed now... so good night!! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo.

life in upheaval

2011-06-11T01:53:00.003-06:00

It is our second last weekend in Aberdeen. It seems wierd to say that but it's true. After a good two years here we are leaving and returning to the 'home and native land'. While neither Chris nor I are Canadian born, there is a feeling that with this return to Canada we'll be going home.

And we are excited.

The summer ahead has loads in store for us. We are taking a 'half-the-world' (as opposed to 'around the world') trip to Norway, Singapore and Malaysia to visit with family and have a mini vacation on a little island in Malaysia too. And then it will be Canada.

Our things are being packed and boxed and when the movers leave here we will be seeing our things again only in September! So we're packing luggage for two months! That makes me a little nervous because of the weather changes we're going to be facing. Albeit it's going to be summer - but summer in Norway is not Singapore hot either.. and as it turns out 23 kg per person, hmm, not very much when you're looking at two months. For this trip, my 'packing light' practice is being put to the test!

We're so excited to see how the children take to going on such a big vacation together. Lara and Luc are having so much fun together (her with him more than anything right now). We're discovering new things as Lucas grows and he's such a chatty chap right now it's soooo funny!

In the meantime, life goes on and we are still doing things like eating out, meeting with some friends, and reading. Loads of reading here. Lara finishing off school and those last events in Aberdeen are so important to 'toast the town' on a high before we leave. We hope to make it so memorable for her. She has had a super time here.

Life is busy, but good. But photos have not been taken as much as I'd like - which I'm determined to change. With the bout of sickness with Lucas that we've had, I've simply not been in the mood to pick the camera up. But it feels like we've turned a corner with that with a sigh of relief!

I have some photos to post which I will try to get to. In the summer, this will be a travel photo blog for a change, to make up for the photos I've NOT been posting! :)

In the meantime, this blog post will have to do without one. I'm due some breakfast and then I have a date with suitcases and boxes!

xoxo.
Sue

8

2011-06-07T09:12:00.003-06:00

So this is what 8 months old looks like..

Luc is:
- successfully eating a good range of cereals.
- eating good fruits too.
- starting milk products.
- sits up by himself
- pulls to standing by himself
- coasts on furniture (walking with holding)
- says Da-Da and Ta-Ta (to Lara).. we're waiting for Mama.. apparently he just has to look at me to demand my presence. :D
- laughs and finds things funny
- practicing his pincer grips on some non-sweet Cheerios
- rockin' the Hawaiian shorts look (grandpa will be proud).

:) Hooray to EIGHT!

i Spy..

2011-06-03T04:02:00.005-06:00

...Cherry Soda in store this month!

This kit, along with its add-ons are absolutely adorable and quite unmissable! My favorite add-on is probably Strawberry Milkshake:

I created some cool layouts this month which I just love. I love the girly flavour of the kit and thought it perfect for sweet Lara.

I've been dealing with some letting go issues with little Lara. Seeing these photos reminded me of how letting go is part of life, and just playing and pushing her on swings is part of that process of letting go for me.

Love the contrasts of this layout!

The Sassafras paper is perfect for this one. I used the stitches as journaling lines - my favorite technique at the moment!

Isn't it fun and summery? Yellow is also a favorite of mine right now..

Another bright layout to tell a sweet story for Lara.. There is a book called Smarty Sara which Lara just loves. And in it, Sara goes on a fun picnic with her friends..

Lara loves to play pretend and I thought it was cute to do a page with a similar title.

I love those Basic Grey pinwheels for this! Don't you?

This layout is just sooooo me :). Fun, pink, bright and a bit of sass!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend! I know I've not been a great blogger lately. Lucas now has a high temperature and I have been dealing with him for the past few days. At least he's starting to sleep through the night now, which makes things a little easier for us. Still a little bit of unrest here.

Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo

When it's quiet..

2011-05-27T14:55:00.004-06:00

...check!

Luc doesn't like to sit alone. So when he was quiet I thought, wow.. lucky me today.. but then guess what?

I find this in his playpen:

Yupp.. he chewed his board book. Seriously dude?? Who does that?

Then, who can get upset when you look at these sweet puppy dog eyes..

"Me? I do nothing.."

Funny Luc. Very funny.

Milestones

2011-05-25T02:39:00.003-06:00

Just a few milestones we've passed around here.

Month 6 and Month 7 have been a big shock. A lot of crying and lack of sleep. And a lot of changes. For him and for all of us.

It seems so strange that we've been slipping these months by when you look at them on a layout like this but thirty nights of lack of sleep is a long time for both Mama and Daddy. But we're taking it in our stride and believing that it will be alright soon. We have to, it's a survival thing.

In 5 days he's going to hit his next month - EIGHT. That's huge since it's the transition into 'dairy' and 'meats' in his diet which will hopefully help him transition into solids even better - leading to hopefully better sleep..

Yes, it's a big thing around here.

In other news, the purging is going on full blast and the packing will start soon too what with boxes coming our way shortly from our movers. Keeping focus is a big thing for me. Eye on the ball, as they say.

Off to do some more work while Luc naps! Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo.

Just Being..

2011-05-22T01:49:00.004-06:00

..just being here.
..being honest.
...being tired.
Motherhood is tough.

Doing my best.
Hoping and trying to make it good enough.

This is my special girl.

We've had a few shouting matches here. Unfortunately I've shouted at her. I'm not proud of it.
But we're working on it.

We have our ups and downs but I'm hoping we'll always work hard on our relationship. I'm so happy to have a girl like her.

And even when it's difficult, love definitely lives here.

Some days I feel like just throwing in the towel.

The lack of sleep gets to me.

The 'life-in-transition' mode gets to me.

But it will all be over soon and I know when we finally settle we will be very happy.

Until then, I'm working on being present, and being there for my two kids, and making the next few months go as smooth, and as fun and cheerful as possible.

There are so many milestones that we're going through here at home. This one is a big one -

That's right, we're on to the solids and have been for nearly two months. Luc is doing well and loving it all. But he's a screamer when he doesn't get his way.

Another thing to work on, right?

We're working on
..teething,
...not screaming,
...getting away from all the stranger anxiety,
...sleeping through the night,
...walking,
...coasting,
...crawling
...and not eating everything off the floor.

Just milestones and developments for a little baby.. must be a lot to take in.

I'm just another mom trying to get through the stages. I guess it doesn't end. But I'm glad we're here and I pray for strength of spirit, mind and body.

I can't help thinking at the same time: A vacation can't come soon enough.

You know? *wink*

Happy week ahead!

xoxo.

17.mai

2011-05-17T14:34:00.004-06:00

The Norwegian 17th May celebrations yesterday went really well. It always amazes me how people find the time to celebrate their country even when they are far away. Many families turned up and there were many different generations all gathered in one place, to sing the Norwegian National Anthem:

See the flag being raised:

And even have time to play some fun games. (I like how Lara picked the red sack which matched her dress). Cute, huh?

Here's my two Norwegians. I'm blessed to have three but the third one couldn't make it.

We are so happy to have taken the opportunity today and taken time out to go and do this with my little ones.

Big smiles all around :D

Hurra for 17.mai!!!

xoxo
Sue

Right now...

2011-05-17T03:39:00.003-06:00

1. Busy with the Norwegian National Day preparations to attend the event organised by Norwegians in Aberdeen.

2. Setting out lists for our big move back to Canada - there seems to be a lot of things to do, and when you have two children, it's even more than when you have more :).

3. Purging my scrapbooking studio (I have patterned paper coming out the wazoooo).

4. and life goes on - groceries, laundry and more..

I've got some layouts to share which I will do tomorrow.

Here's one created with the May Kit from Cocoa Daisy. I love the transparency and layered it on misted white cardstock for a fresher look. This is my sweet Lucas.. :) He's now coasting on all the furniture he can get a hold of, and falling backwards when he misses a step. Basically, he's to be watched all the time right now :(..

Have a nice day!

:) Enjoy!
xoxo
Sue

Since it's May

2011-05-16T09:31:00.003-06:00

Hello dearies.

It's a gloomy May day today in Aberdeen and the sky looks as if it's going to pour but hasn't quite decided when. As a result, it's mainly grey. Like always.

Things are well on their way to being packed here in Casa Em.. I've just gone through a few scrapbooking items and am continuing on my quest for more purging less keeping throughout this week. It's exhausting - who'd have thought you could amass THAT much stuff, right? Right.

It's all good though, as long as Lucas takes naps and sleeps through the night, we'll get through this, and on the other side, there's a vacation somewhere warm waiting for me. Good, eh?

We're so ready for a vacation in our house. Seriously.

On the other hand, I love my scrapbooking and can't stay away from my scrappy desk - while all my embellishments are being kept away, I'm still saving some best bits to play with and USE USE USE (that's been my motto this whole year) and I'm glad to share these pages with you!

This one was created for the Fashion Forward Challenge for the Cocoa Daisy Crop.

It's a color challenge and I love this light teal color so much!

And another page created with some pictures of Lucas from 5 months. He's such an adorable cutie. I've been using the zig-zag stitch on my sewing machine and I really really love it (can you tell - it's EVERYWHERE).

Also like to change the thread color.. this time it's all about the light olive :D

Hope you have a lovely Monday and a good week ahead. I'm off to heat the oven for dinner now.

xoxo,
S.

It's the Spring Crop

2011-05-14T08:37:00.005-06:00

..over at the Cocoa Daisy community this weekend.

The Daisy Divas have come up with a whole range of challenges, games, and classes for everyone to enjoy.

The first challenge, set by my friend Anna is this one based on a gorgeous sketch:

Just lovely right?

The added bonus is for us to scrapbook about a subject that we're struggling with.

This is my layout:

We're really struggling with this right now - we need the sweetheart to sleep sleep sleep.. and he's getting there - it's just taken us a few sleepless nights (and more).

I love these Jillibean Soup flowers.. they look so wholesome and lovely. Perfect colors for my page!

We're playing and having fun with the scrap stash this weekend - just a good break from life in general for me and I'm really enjoying myself. At the same time, I'm packing up my scrapbook areas in order for us to prepare for the move to Canada.. which means I'm additionally busy because I'm thinking two steps ahead of my scrapbooking to know what to keep, and where. Exciting right?

Have a good weekend sweets!

xoxo.
Sue

Back with the Challenges

2011-05-11T15:24:00.000-06:00

I wanted to thank you all who have been patient with me during this difficult time. It's been a challenge in itself for sure and I'm looking ahead to brighter days and staying on the positive side of life together with my family.

While being off line, and busy with everything life has to hit at me right now, it's therapeutic for me to sit and create. It is essential to my sanity and keeps me happy to keep my artwork growing and to focus on the memories that we create during our everyday lives.

I'm working on a lot of the photos we have right now for a massive photo printing session. I'm hoping to record all these stories before we move but also to make sure I don't forget any of these moments.

Like this one, in February, remembered on this layout, with very much fondness.

I created this for the Sarah Hurley Challenge Blog but was not able to post in time with the rest of the DT because of my Internet issues this past week.

The challenge is simple and cute - and fun to do if you like "all things with wings"..

Why not play along if you can - the deadline is May 15th! Submit for Challenge #40 here.

This weekend is also the Cocoa Daisy Spring Crop! We do this twice a year and we are extremely excited about this one because of it's oh-so-cool "World Bazaars" theme!

It's all happening here starting on Friday evening, 4pm Eastern (New York) Time. So check out our extensive schedule here:

Sounds awesome right? We're going to have such a blast!

Hope to see you there!

life is what happens..

2011-05-10T15:12:00.005-06:00

..when you're busy making other plans.

Since my last post:

Lucas was in the ER and then admitted for a night after turning blue with the fever and UTI.

Chris and I have had less than three hours sleep per night for about two weeks now.

My Internet went out for a week - and this was debilitating because of how much I work online.

A very close and most loved family member has received some bad health news, which I will share in due course. Right now the family would prefer to share information selectively in order to allow those who may be affected some time to absorb the news. And I will respect that here on the public blog. If you do know of the situation, please refrain from commenting about who and what it is. Thank you.

All the same, life has taken us by storm this week but we're taking it all in our stride. So I beg a little more patience at this under blogged blog.

I'll be back soon. Thank you for your understanding and for stopping by to check on me.

Always,
Sue.

Scrapbook on the Road: Calgary

2011-05-02T00:00:00.000-06:00

It's been awhile since I've penned my thoughts down on this blog. I've missed it, I must admit.

Life has been really hectic from a personal, family front. Scrapbooking and creating has had to take a month break partly because we've been totally jet-lagged this month after our vacation to sunny and beautiful Calgary 'cow-town'. If it was just the 'big' people jet lagged we would have gotten in line so much faster but Lucas was terribly jet lagged and not falling asleep until 3am for a whole week after we got back from Calgary. It's been nuts!

But life is slowly going back to normal and that's good because I've been missing blogging, crafting and hanging out at my favorite blog places and checking you all out. I know life is going to be just crazy these next few months anyway but crazy is good - at least if we have enough sleep..

So first thing I wanted to share now that I'm back is this lovely Scrapbook on the Road album I prepared for Calgary..

I always have some travel fun accessories and embellishments in my stash:

And added these to the Ali Edwards 'Scrapbook On The Road' Kit provided by Cocoa Daisy.

And here are some of the fun pages I created before I went on vacation..

And this reveals the reason why we went to Calgary in the first place:

Yepp that's right we're returning to Canada for good. It's been a good journey to Europe and I've loved it. But we are ready to settle in for the longer long haul and we've always counted Canada as a real home for our family. We are thrilled that we'll be heading back!

So it will be a busy few months of packing and purging and combining life-in-transition with living.

I love this album and I am almost finished with it since returning from Calgary and I'll be sharing this with you soon.

In the meantime, check out the May Kit DT Gallery at Cocoa Daisy because the talented girls have shared so many awesome layouts this month!

xoxo,
Sue

Words & Perspectives: Thank You!

2011-04-29T14:19:00.003-06:00

Dear friends,

Thank you so much for visiting and reading the perspectives of these talented ladies from across the globe.

It has been my pleasure to host these perspectives and I leave you with a final note for the series from Cindy Liebel who has chosen a particularly real word for her perspective:

'Struggle'

The journaling reads:

I want to make you happy and try to do everything I possibly can for you, knowing that I love and adore you with all my heart. But at times, I feel there is a lack of appreciation in all that I do for you. I constantly struggle to find words or other ways in keeping you happy. I know you are forever learning and growing to understand they way of life and finding your voice. You are always expressing your feeling and I try and want to understand those feelings in every possible way. I’ll never be perfect, but will always have an open mind and willing to listen. You often tell me, “You’re mean mommy!” Deep down inside that breaks my heart. I don’t want to be known as the mean mommy. I want you to look to me as the mommy that is willing and able to be the best mother she can possibly be, no matter what. Know that every word you express to me is being heard. You can always count on me and know that I only want what is best for you.

Thank you Cindy for your perspective!

Regular blogging returns shortly. Thank you for supporting my blog... I've got so many fun things to share with you! Please come back soon!

xoxo,
Sue

Words & Perspectives: Journeys // Joy

2011-04-29T04:00:00.000-06:00

It is often the simple things in life that bring us joy and it is often children who remind us of these simple pleasures and delights that we tend to leave behind us as adults.

The occasion was a birthday family dinner at our local Thai restaurant for my niece.

The children were promised a surprise if they were well behaved throughout the night.

As promised at the end of the night they were each given a little bottle of Bo-Beep sweets and a balloon to play with. The spontaneous joy and laughter was so infectious and it reminded me of my own childhood and how happy a little bottle of Bo Beep sweets had made me feel. Fortunately I was sitting on the other side of the table as they jumped for joy. I am so thankful that I was able to capture this wonderful moment forever.

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About Vania
Married for eight and a half years and no children but has a great love for children. Vania has been a volunteer team leader for 15 years for her church community kids club program which has been challenging and very rewarding over the years.

Having a love of various arts and crafts from a very early age over the years she has sketched and painted, crocheted and dabbled with decoupage, created with ceramics, pulled some pottery, and loved working with stained glass / lead lighting. During her working career she has had some wonderful opportunities to create recipes for a food company which featured in a variety of magazines in Australia and assisted with some food styling as well. Last year she discovered the wonderful world of card making and how sublime scrapbooking can be.

Read more about Vania here.

Words & Perspectives: Journeys // Us

2011-04-28T04:00:00.000-06:00

It is always so much more blessed to be an “us” or “we” rather than just “I” or “me”. Whatever context we are looking at, we cannot function on our own. Independence aside, we need others- loved ones, family, friends etc. I used to be very much of a loner, did not socialize as much as I should for my age then. I honestly did not trust very much either. There was always a plan B for myself. It was only in the recent years when I entered the workforce and yes, met my better half that I truly understood and valued the word “us”. I experienced what it was like making decisions together, experiencing life- good and bad together and us planning for a future together. We all have our own stories to tell about what “us” signifies.

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About Juanna:

Caseworker (social work) by day, scrapper by night. Love to read on top of scrapping and am hopeful to pick up sewing and baking. I am a dreamer, and my head’s always on the go with aspirations, goals, ideas, anything.

Wants to be a voice for the abused strays and I believe in impossibilities. Most of all, I am a child of God and that is what defines me completely.

Words & Perspectives: Journeys // Experiment

2011-04-27T04:00:00.000-06:00

It’s like several years of dammed up needs to be creative have exploded. I started out with the scrapbooking but right now there seems to be no boundaries. I want to try everything! I keep on returning to this thought “what if internet had existed when I was a kid”.

I wanted to do so many things – paint, take photos, write… The channels available now – the huge source of inspiration and knowledge and the fantastic possibilities to find people like yourself and to share what you create – had been so much worth!

But I’m doing my best to catch up. I’m trying to draw, paint with acrylics, stamp, sew, use watersoluble crayons and watercolor pencils. I have learned how to crochet a little and I've also tried knitting. I want to make paintings, tell stories, make art out of trash and just play. I don’t want to think that I’m not able to anymore. All possibilities are here! I just have to go on experimenting and I will find what really is me.

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About Anna

My name is Anna Björklund and I live in a small town just outside Stockholm, Sweden together with Johan and our kids Linus (8) and Alva (5). We’re also expecting the addition of a new little baby to our family, in May this year.

Right now I’m staying at home, waiting for the baby to arrive, but normally I work as a Patent Engineer at the Swedish Patent and Registration Office, handling applications within the field of Biotechnology.

I stumbled over this fabulous hobby after my first child was born in 2003. Scrapbooking wasn’t very well known in Sweden at that time, but it has grown enormously since then! It’s been so much fun to follow this development and I just love scrapbooking more and more. I love that scrapbooking can be done in so many different ways. Sometimes the most important thing is the story I want to tell, sometimes I have a beautiful photo that I want to preserve and other times I just want to have fun experimenting and playing with paint and other supplies.

I am very happy and proud to be designing for Cocoa Daisy, Pencil Lines and for a Swedish wholesaler, Engströms Artstudio. I am also part of the team for a Swedish inspirational blog, SWE Scrapbook. I also blog regularly.

Thank you so much for having me as a guest on your blog Sue!

Words & Perspective: Journeys // Wilderness

2011-04-26T04:00:00.000-06:00

I love the wilderness of Alaska, it feeds my imagination and its vistas are a feast for my eyes. I love to drive the few roads that pass through this scenic wonder, for who knows what I may see? In the spring, I keep a watchful eye for a moose with her newborn calf or perhaps a goose or duck shepherding her flock across the road. If she is frightened, she will shoo her flock into the brush and she will feint injury by dragging her wing, hoping to divert my attention from her babies. In the fall, I keep watch for the majestic Bull Moose with the velvet rubbed from his antlers; he is searching for a mate.

I have seen the beautiful trumpeter swan with her mate and cygnets gently floating in a pristine lake with water as clear as glass. Once I sat for hours and watched two beavers hard at work engineering a dam so that they would have a pond where they could build a lodge and store their winter food supply. I have seen bear cubs playing with each other as only children do. Their mother was watching from a nearby post and when she called them with a quiet woof, they responded immediately. Ah, but then, there was the time I saw Mama bear smack her cub “upside the head” because he was being a bit too rambunctious! I guess kids will be kids, no matter the species.

There are places I go in the wilderness that were once covered by glaciers, and even today, receding glaciers are visible in the distance. I wonder what it was like in the glacial age, how did any living creature survive the constant cold? I wonder what lies under the glacier and as the glacier continues to recede, what secrets will unfold for scientists to study.

More than anything, the wilderness is God’s country. It is there that I see and feel the wonder of our earth and experience the simple pleasures of observing so many creatures quietly going about the business of living in the wild. My eyes feast upon the wide-open vistas and the dark forests, the glacial valleys, the snow covered peaks, all this natural beauty that surrounds me and my heart just sings.

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About Maggi

Maggi lives in NC with her wonderful husband and two standard poodles that she refers to as the spoos. They are her children and of course, she does a lot of layouts featuring her furkids.

Maggi and her husband have been married for 18 very happy years, and in those 18 years they have lived in Washington DC, Fairbanks, Alaska, Denver, CO and North Carolina. They are not currently military, but her husband is a retired Navy pilot and Maggi was an Army brat.

Moving is second nature to them and every 2 - 3 years they get the bug to move. However, they have nailed the furniture down and they're not moving again! They do like to travel with the spoos in their motorhome and that means she also does a lot of travel layouts.

She thinks she has always been a scrapper, she just didn’t know it! She had scrapbooks as a teen with all kinds of ephemera in them. Unfortunately, in her later years, she was so embarrassed by her silly childhood collections that she destroyed them! There was a mostly disintegrated leaf from a tree at Paul McCartney’s house in there. That is a clue to her age. Then in 2005, she started scrapbooking as we know it today and she is completely OCD about it!

Maggi loves scrapping 12 x 12 pages but she also have a real love for making paperbag albums, ATCs, and something she recently discovered, arches. For her, scrapbooking is an artistic adventure:
"What can I create next, how can I make this piece of paper come to life? How can I tell the story that is hidden in this photograph?"

Maggi blogs here.

Words & Perspectives: Journeys // Writing

2011-04-25T04:00:00.000-06:00

Since high school, I have always felt that I don’t like writing. I didn’t think I was good at it. And I could never look at someone while he or she read my writing. I’d have to look away, or go to the other room. At some point, as an adult, I figured I wasn’t a terrible writer; I’ve written enough papers and reports for work and school, and people always seem pleased enough with the results. But, still, I maintained the position that I didn’t like writing. It simply was not a creative outlet for me.

I’ve been scrapbooking for about six years, and most of that time, I had minimal journaling, and I always added it last to my pages. Oh, I read articles in scrapbook magazines about “how to improve your journaling…” and “writing from the heart.…” I glanced at each one and said, “Nah, that’s not for me.” And when people read the few words I had written on my scrapbook pages-guess what?-I had to look away.

Well, suddenly in the last month or two, I just can’t seem to find enough space on my scrapbook pages to tell my stories. I have things I want to say! Stories I want to tell! And, I have even enjoyed the process of choosing words, and phrases, of writing and rewriting.

When I set out on this project, I expected to delve a little deeper into why this change took place. But before I began to do that, I needed a picture for my scrapbook page, and I decided to photograph some old journals that I have kept over the years. I realized that I had quite a collection of them.

It took a few years after beginning scrapbooking to consider myself an “artist”. Recently, I began to wonder if I could think of myself as a “writer” too. And now I wonder, “Have I always been a writer?”

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About Aliza

I am 36 years old, a wife, and a mother of 2 boys whose ginormous-ness amazes me daily. (They are 9 and 12.) I live in New York City and work as a preschool teacher to 2 and 3 year old children.

I discovered scrabooking about six years ago, and I think I can best describe it as “coming home.” I had always been looking for a creative outlet-I had a restless feeling about me. Scrapbooking gave me that outlet, helped me learn about the creative process, made me think of myself as an artist (that took some time), and it continues to give me new goals to strive for. And at the very least, the albums are fun to look through. With creativity comes some new challenges, the most basic being finding time to be creative without abandoning work and the family whose childhood you are so lovingly recording.

I stopped teaching in 2007, and went to pursue a career in construction. It’s a whole long story to tell, and I hope to tell it one day in scrapbook format. Here is a much shorter version. For about a year and a half, I wore a tool belt, carried sheetrock and plywood, knocked down walls, and installed floors, among many other things. I do see it all as part of the process of becoming crafty—I worked with my hands and helped make beautiful things. The economy tanked, and I am back at teaching, and happier than I was before. I don’t think I would go back to construction, but I wouldn’t change those years for anything in the world.

Get to know Aliza on her blog.

Words & Perspectives: Journeys // Inscription

2011-04-22T04:00:00.000-06:00

I knew I wanted to create a canvas for this word. Inscription has so many possibilities artistically. The definition of the word inscription is:
1. The act or an instance of inscribing.
2. A marking, such as the wording on a coin, medal, monument, or seal, that is inscribed.
3. A piece of material, such as a stone or metal tablet, that is inscribed.
4. An enrollment or a registration of names.
5.The usually informal dedication of a book or an artistic work.

This word lends to a variety of techniques to be used in an artwork. I love the look of text stamped into materials like clay, texture paste or metal. The use of the dictionary pages with the word's definition on the artwork acted like the journaling. I love texture and enjoyed pushing myself in trying different ways to inscribe words here. In most of my artwork, I use words carved, stamps, or embedded in materials to create interest and three dimensional quality on a flat surface.

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About Jen

My name is Jennifer Matott. My life is full of chaos and calm, diplomacy and tantrums, mess and order, freedom and chains. I am an elementary art teacher who didn't end up teaching little kids by choice, but discovered the joy of it all the same. Even though I'm certified to teach art K-12, I chose to teach the upper grades early on in my career and was lucky enough to stay there for 12 years. Unfortunately, budget cuts forced me into an age group that I was not comfortable with, but fell in love with in these last 2 years.

The K-6 crowd is fun, loud, creative, and chaotic! It is never dull in my classroom. I revel in it most days. I go home to two little boys that are my masterpieces. They have such spirited personalities and are my favorite thing to document in my art.

My husband is a neat freak! He is a number cruncher and I'm the creative mess. Keeps things interesting. We live in Central New York outside of Syracuse. It's cold 7 months of the year and summers are divine!

My family is around us and we are lucky to have such support. Scrapbooking is my current art form along with mixed media journaling, sculpture, and some ceramics. I am trained as a sculptor but since having kids, it's been limited to what I can manage between distractions. I found that scrapbooking was a way to incorporate my love of texture, 3-dimensional cravings, and still have something that is a visual reminder of my life around me.

It is my sanity and my escape. It allows me to be as eclectic or simple as my mood leads me. It also brought me into the group of girlfriends that share my love of this art. We laugh, scrap and drink together. They are my best friends. The industry is constantly changing and I love to see what new materials are put out there and how I can manipulate them to my needs.

I find that I love a good challenge and strive to push myself and my materials to the limit and beyond. If it rips, so what! If it crumples... all the more textured! I love to combine text and imagery for maximum communication. All in all, it is the process that lures me in.

Check out my blog here.

Words & Perspectives: Journeys // Waiting

2011-04-21T04:00:00.000-06:00

I’m waiting. I’m waiting and wondering how things will go and what it will be like. I’m waiting and longing. I’m waiting for a new time, a new life, a new member of our family. I’m waiting to once more meet a little one, to welcome a new little human being into the world. I’m waiting for my fourth child to be born. I’m waiting and longing. I’m waiting and feeling happy about time moving so fast. I’m waiting and feeling scared about time moving so fast. Soon I won’t be waiting at home anymore, but at the hospital. It’s both comforting and really difficult. I’m waiting to see how I’ll cope during the long hospital stay. I’m waiting to see how Johan, Linus and Alva will handle being without me for such a long time. I’m waiting to smell a newborn baby. I’m waiting to feel the warmth from a very new little person.

While we are all waiting, we sometimes talk about Hugo. “As long as the same thing does not happen as with Hugo”, Alva said last week. I’m waiting and I’m thinking the same thing. As long as the same thing does not happen as with Hugo. We are waiting and longing and hoping that this new little baby will make it. That the new little person will get enough time inside me to be ready. We’re waiting to see if things can go as well as when Alva was born, once more. We’re waiting for sleepless nights, screaming, breast feeding chaos and change of diapers. We’re waiting and hoping with all our hearts that all this will happen. I’m waiting and dreaming. I’m waiting and thinking. I feel the fear mix with happiness. I’m waiting and wondering what Linus and Alva will think of their new sibling. I’m waiting and hoping that they’ll get to share their happiness and love with this new little being, who I can feel kicking inside.

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About Anna

My name is Anna Björklund and I live in a small town just outside Stockholm, Sweden together with Johan and our kids Linus (8) and Alva (5). We’re also expecting the addition of a new little baby to our family, in May this year.

Right now I’m staying at home, waiting for the baby to arrive, but normally I work as a Patent Engineer at the Swedish Patent and Registration Office, handling applications within the field of Biotechnology.

I stumbled over this fabulous hobby after my first child was born in 2003. Scrapbooking wasn’t very well known in Sweden at that time, but it has grown enormously since then! It’s been so much fun to follow this development and I just love scrapbooking more and more. I love that scrapbooking can be done in so many different ways. Sometimes the most important thing is the story I want to tell, sometimes I have a beautiful photo that I want to preserve and other times I just want to have fun experimenting and playing with paint and other supplies.

I am very happy and proud to be designing for Cocoa Daisy, Pencil Lines and for a Swedish wholesaler, Engströms Artstudio. I am also part of the team for a Swedish inspirational blog, SWE Scrapbook. I also blog regularly.

Thank you so much for having me as a guest on your blog Sue!

Words & Perspectives: Journeys // Work

2011-04-20T04:00:00.000-06:00

I chose the word "Jobb" (Norwegian, means work). The reason for that is that I'm starting in my new job in two weeks - as a journalist - being responsible for the culture (cultural?) content of the local newspaper. Needless to say I am both thrilled and nervous about it. I've been studying my whole adult life, and while I did intern at that place for almost a year plus been doing quite a bit of freelancing both for them and as a photographer, it's the first time I'm going to have a "real" job.

For this layout I used a mix of Hambly Sceenprints, Pink Paislee, Sassafras and Elle's Studio. I felt that it turned out a bit too dark - hence the white rub-ons, doily and transparency in between the layers to lighten up the mood.

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About Anne Jo:

I'm Anne Jo Lexander, better known as Ania to both friends and family. I live in a white house on a small Island at the West Coast of Norway with my husband and our two children aged 9 and 5. Currently I'm a journalist at the local newspaper, M.A. student when I have the time and a photographer at my spare time...so when I'm not doing any of these things you can find me at home in my scrapbook-corner working on projects, or watching movies and TV series with my husband. Oh, and taking care of the kids in between, I guess *wink* *smile*

You can find me at my personal blog, my scrapbook-resume blog or my personal photography portfolio.

Words & Perspectives: Truths // Love

2011-04-19T04:00:00.001-06:00

It didn’t take very long for the word to go out to all the nurses and carers on duty that day that my mother had passed away. A little while later there was a line of people outside her room all with flowers in their hands that they had picked from the garden.

As they went single file into the room to lay those flowers on the bed we were touch by the demonstration of love for our beloved mother. Her last days with cancer were difficult days but through the dark clouds there was always a ray of sunshine that touched many lives and hearts with her “mother's love”. Throughout her life she was simply called Mum by many who had never known a mother's love. On this sad day I came to realize more than ever before that everyone needs a mother to love, no matter what their age.

She loved to sing, even in those difficult days, and she loved to hear sweet little birds singing in the garden, The Blue Wren was her favourite one of all.

To have Pansies and Violets growing in her garden delighted her heart no end.

I am so thankful to have experienced the unconditional love of my mother's love.

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About Vania
Married for eight and a half years and no children but has a great love for children. Vania has been a volunteer team leader for 15 years for her church community kids club program which has been challenging and very rewarding over the years.

Having a love of various arts and crafts from a very early age over the years she has sketched and painted, crocheted and dabbled with decoupage, created with ceramics, pulled some pottery, and loved working with stained glass / lead lighting. During her working career she has had some wonderful opportunities to create recipes for a food company which featured in a variety of magazines in Australia and assisted with some food styling as well. Last year she discovered the wonderful world of card making and how sublime scrapbooking can be.

Read more about Vania here.

Words & Perspectives: Truths // Identity

2011-04-18T04:00:00.000-06:00

Identity is something that defines us. Each of us has that unique identification that sets us apart. My personal take of what it means to be proud of this identity is about being who I really am inside, that authenticity to be able to stand firm, not changing myself in anyway just to fit in. It is also about not conforming to what the world defines as good enough. Most of all, it is also about being proud of the quirks, character and personality that forms our innermost being even if others may not think we are “cool” enough for them. To be able to be comfortable with our own identity is truly a journey that takes many forms and experiences. It does not happen overnight but take heart that it will happen; when you begin to love being you and not someone else.

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About Juanna:

Caseworker (social work) by day, scrapper by night. Love to read on top of scrapping and am hopeful to pick up sewing and baking. I am a dreamer, and my head’s always on the go with aspirations, goals, ideas, anything.

Wants to be a voice for the abused strays and I believe in impossibilities. Most of all, I am a child of God and that is what defines me completely.

Words & Perspectives: Truths // Life

2011-04-16T04:00:00.000-06:00

My word is LIFE.
Yes, a big word - I know.
But for me it is just my simple little life, my everyday life, just as it is.
I have been working a bit with this word this year...it just sort of came to me.
Life has been so terribly busy the last years....or - well - I guess I just made it busy....Last year I was so exhausted I really couldn't find joy in anything - and I told my self, I had to slow down, take time to enjoy life just as it is. Smell the roses and enjoy a cup of coffe in the sun.
Listen to my kids, make them feel happy and let them know how much they mean to me - because it is HERE in the very small things - the everyday - it is here LIFE really is. :)
So that's why I have created these everyday layouts - focusing on the little things that makes life meaningful, lovely, fun and worth living. :)

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About Gudrun

Busy mom to 4 wonderful kids.
married to the most fantastic husband.
Live in Oslo, the capital of Norway.
Full time Paperlover, freelance designer, scrapbooker, scrapbooking-and-papercraft-teacher,
owner and designer at the design-company 3ndypapir.
Proud member of Cosmo Cricket Design team, Pixie Dust Studio Design Team and Pencil Lines Sketch Blog DT
Love it!

Words & Perspectives: Truths // Eco

2011-04-15T04:00:00.002-06:00

The words on the photograph state that “The going green movement is not about radical change. When you make the decision to be eco-friendly, it is about the small steps that take you to a greener, more conscious way of life. Learn. Take action.”

In order to balance our paper consumption, scrapbookers must look into the future and make alternative choices. We must use the products we currently own, seek out earth-friendly supplies, buy less virgin paper and begin to learn digital scrapbooking if we have not done so already.

I journaled on the page, “One seed. One step. One action at a time equals big, positive changes.” We all have the power to change how the world scrapbooks.

Supplies: Cardstock: DCWV (recycled), Cosmo Cricket (FSC Certified printed with soy-based inks), Georgia Pacific (recycled); other: letter stencils, lightbulb cardboard box, gift bag handle, rick rack, buttons, twine, ink, letter stamps, adhesive.

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About Danielle:

Danielle Hunter is a native of Ohio, USA where she created her first scrapbook at the age of four. Her artistic scrapbooking style showcases layouts that are graphic with bold colors to fun and eclectic pages. Danielle is a member of the Glue Dots, MemoryWorks and ScrapTiffany design teams. She is the founder of Snap.Scrap.Blog.Tweet, a MemoryWorks Consultant and owner of Scrappin’ Memories 4U. Danielle’s new project, ecoScrapbook, is launching in April, along with an Etsy shop.

Words & Perspectives: Truths // Process

2011-04-14T04:00:00.001-06:00

You know that yucky feeling you get in your stomach, when something is unknown? Like in the middle of a big decision; should I switch jobs? Should I move? Where should we go on vacation? I don’t know about anybody else, but in those times, I feel tense and nervous all the time. To cope, I breathe deeply, and I say to myself, “It’s part of the process.” In life, sometimes you have to not know for a while. You have to think, and you have to make decisions, and sometimes you have to be nervous and tense. It’s how you get to the next step, whatever that may be.

When I’m creating a scrapbook layout, there is often a part of the process, where I feel stuck. Things don’t look quite the way I thought they would, and I start to feel frustrated, and I think, “Perhaps this is it. I’ve lost my touch.” Again, I remind myself, “It’s part of the process.” In order to get to the stage where I’m proud of my work, I have to struggle and work to find the right combination of elements. It doesn’t have to come together right away.

And, when my kids are going through a difficult stage, and I think, “Why are they so stubborn? Why must they fight? When will they learn?” I remember their life is a process too. If they came out being perfectly socialized and responsible, well, then they wouldn’t need me. They need their time to make mistakes, to be sad, and to be angry, in order to get to their next stage. Without the struggle, there would be no growth.

I guess thinking about the process, is another way of saying, “look at the big picture.” Whatever words you use, it’s about living in the present, accepting challenges, and then looking back and seeing how far you’ve come.

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About Aliza

I am 36 years old, a wife, and a mother of 2 boys whose ginormous-ness amazes me daily. (They are 9 and 12.) I live in New York City and work as a preschool teacher to 2 and 3 year old children.

I discovered scrabooking about six years ago, and I think I can best describe it as “coming home.” I had always been looking for a creative outlet-I had a restless feeling about me. Scrapbooking gave me that outlet, helped me learn about the creative process, made me think of myself as an artist (that took some time), and it continues to give me new goals to strive for. And at the very least, the albums are fun to look through. With creativity comes some new challenges, the most basic being finding time to be creative without abandoning work and the family whose childhood you are so lovingly recording.

I stopped teaching in 2007, and went to pursue a career in construction. It’s a whole long story to tell, and I hope to tell it one day in scrapbook format. Here is a much shorter version. For about a year and a half, I wore a tool belt, carried sheetrock and plywood, knocked down walls, and installed floors, among many other things. I do see it all as part of the process of becoming crafty—I worked with my hands and helped make beautiful things. The economy tanked, and I am back at teaching, and happier than I was before. I don’t think I would go back to construction, but I wouldn’t change those years for anything in the world.

Get to know Aliza on her blog.

Words & Perspectives: Truths // Communication

2011-04-13T04:00:00.001-06:00

This page is about communication in a relationship as well as in other areas of your life. My husband and I have been married for 10 years and dated for 2 years prior to marriage.

Communication is always a work in progress. It's hard to always communicate effectively. My journaling speaks of our need to keep finding ways to improve the ways we voice our opinions and viewpoints. Often in a marriage, we have a battle of wills or a need to be right. It's more important to communicate effectively and positively.

While that sounds easy, it is hardest in the middle of an argument or misunderstanding. It's an area that we will always be trying to improve. I used the birds to symbolize two people taking to each other.

This page is a tribute to all the relationships out there and the ways in which people communicate with each other.

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About Jen

My name is Jennifer Matott. My life is full of chaos and calm, diplomacy and tantrums, mess and order, freedom and chains. I am an elementary art teacher who didn't end up teaching little kids by choice, but discovered the joy of it all the same. Even though I'm certified to teach art K-12, I chose to teach the upper grades early on in my career and was lucky enough to stay there for 12 years. Unfortunately, budget cuts forced me into an age group that I was not comfortable with, but fell in love with in these last 2 years.

The K-6 crowd is fun, loud, creative, and chaotic! It is never dull in my classroom. I revel in it most days. I go home to two little boys that are my masterpieces. They have such spirited personalities and are my favorite thing to document in my art.

My husband is a neat freak! He is a number cruncher and I'm the creative mess. Keeps things interesting. We live in Central New York outside of Syracuse. It's cold 7 months of the year and summers are divine!

My family is around us and we are lucky to have such support. Scrapbooking is my current art form along with mixed media journaling, sculpture, and some ceramics. I am trained as a sculptor but since having kids, it's been limited to what I can manage between distractions. I found that scrapbooking was a way to incorporate my love of texture, 3-dimensional cravings, and still have something that is a visual reminder of my life around me.

It is my sanity and my escape. It allows me to be as eclectic or simple as my mood leads me. It also brought me into the group of girlfriends that share my love of this art. We laugh, scrap and drink together. They are my best friends. The industry is constantly changing and I love to see what new materials are put out there and how I can manipulate them to my needs.

I find that I love a good challenge and strive to push myself and my materials to the limit and beyond. If it rips, so what! If it crumples... all the more textured! I love to combine text and imagery for maximum communication. All in all, it is the process that lures me in.

Check out my blog here.

Words & Perspectives: Truths // Ability

2011-04-12T04:00:00.004-06:00

The word "Ability" is one that talks of "doing", but not only being able to do something but having the motivation to follow through with it and the skills to do so. We all have the ability to create. It's as ingrained in us as breathing. The key is to stay the course through frustrations, set backs, and obstacles. If you have the idea and the desire to do it, the skill can be learned.

I tell all of my students that they each have the ability but it's more important to stick with it when it gets hard. To work through the problems and keep practicing will allow you to increase your ability. It is not so much that we have a talent but that we have a need or a want to create. I truly believe that everyone has ability and that talent has very little to do with success.

I love the quote by Lou Holtz: "Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do, attitude determines how well you do it." In my artwork, I use some of my favorite techniques such as using cardboard, layering art materials, and images of my journal pages.

This page is a celebration of my ability to create.

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About Jen

My name is Jennifer Matott. My life is full of chaos and calm, diplomacy and tantrums, mess and order, freedom and chains. I am an elementary art teacher who didn't end up teaching little kids by choice, but discovered the joy of it all the same. Even though I'm certified to teach art K-12, I chose to teach the upper grades early on in my career and was lucky enough to stay there for 12 years. Unfortunately, budget cuts forced me into an age group that I was not comfortable with, but fell in love with in these last 2 years.

The K-6 crowd is fun, loud, creative, and chaotic! It is never dull in my classroom. I revel in it most days. I go home to two little boys that are my masterpieces. They have such spirited personalities and are my favorite thing to document in my art.

My husband is a neat freak! He is a number cruncher and I'm the creative mess. Keeps things interesting. We live in Central New York outside of Syracuse. It's cold 7 months of the year and summers are divine!

My family is around us and we are lucky to have such support. Scrapbooking is my current art form along with mixed media journaling, sculpture, and some ceramics. I am trained as a sculptor but since having kids, it's been limited to what I can manage between distractions. I found that scrapbooking was a way to incorporate my love of texture, 3-dimensional cravings, and still have something that is a visual reminder of my life around me.

It is my sanity and my escape. It allows me to be as eclectic or simple as my mood leads me. It also brought me into the group of girlfriends that share my love of this art. We laugh, scrap and drink together. They are my best friends. The industry is constantly changing and I love to see what new materials are put out there and how I can manipulate them to my needs.

I find that I love a good challenge and strive to push myself and my materials to the limit and beyond. If it rips, so what! If it crumples... all the more textured! I love to combine text and imagery for maximum communication. All in all, it is the process that lures me in.

Check out my blog here.

I'm still here

2011-04-11T17:43:00.003-06:00

Dear friends,

Just popping in quickly here :). The Words & Perspectives Series continues for the rest of April.

I am returning to blogging on the 1st of May with more fun posts :) :).

xoxo
Sue

Words & Perspectives: Truths // Reality

2011-04-11T04:00:00.002-06:00

Dick and I are dreamers; we spend so much time letting our imaginations wander the globe pursuing new adventures. Our dreams drive our marriage, and together as a team, we make our dreams reality. We fell in love with Alaska on our honeymoon in September of 1992, and after we came home, we spent many Friday evenings sitting on the deck dreaming of living in the far northwest. On February 13, 1995, Dick began the long drive to Alaska to begin a job at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. I stayed behind to sell our house in Virginia and joined him in May. The logistics of moving from Virginia to Alaska would be overwhelming for some people, but not us, our love of adventure and our quest to fulfill our dream provided the impetus to work through all the problems inherent in a task of that magnitude.

Over the 18 years that we have been married, we have traveled all over the United States and Canada, remodeled parts of three houses and built another. We have moved to Alaska, Colorado, and North Carolina. Soon we will both retire and that is yet another dream fulfilled. However, retiring spawns more dreams; there are more roads to travel, and more realities to find.

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About Maggi

Maggi lives in NC with her wonderful husband and two standard poodles that she refers to as the spoos. They are her children and of course, she does a lot of layouts featuring her furkids.

Maggi and her husband have been married for 18 very happy years, and in those 18 years they have lived in Washington DC, Fairbanks, Alaska, Denver, CO and North Carolina. They are not currently military, but her husband is a retired Navy pilot and Maggi was an Army brat.

Moving is second nature to them and every 2 - 3 years they get the bug to move. However, they have nailed the furniture down and they're not moving again! They do like to travel with the spoos in their motorhome and that means she also does a lot of travel layouts.

She thinks she has always been a scrapper, she just didn’t know it! She had scrapbooks as a teen with all kinds of ephemera in them. Unfortunately, in her later years, she was so embarrassed by her silly childhood collections that she destroyed them! There was a mostly disintegrated leaf from a tree at Paul McCartney’s house in there. That is a clue to her age. Then in 2005, she started scrapbooking as we know it today and she is completely OCD about it!

Maggi loves scrapping 12 x 12 pages but she also have a real love for making paperbag albums, ATCs, and something she recently discovered, arches. For her, scrapbooking is an artistic adventure:
"What can I create next, how can I make this piece of paper come to life? How can I tell the story that is hidden in this photograph?"

Maggi blogs here.

Words & Perspectives: Spirit // Balance

2011-04-09T04:00:00.000-06:00

Balance is probably something that most people struggle with from time to time. It’s something that I’ve been struggling with for a long time. Balance between the different parts of my life. Balance between the different feelings inside me. Balance between what I want to do and what I’m able to do. Balance between anger and happiness, between fear and trust. Balance between what’s bothering me and what really means something.

I wish for more harmony in my life. I’m working on focusing on what brings me the most happiness.

I’m trying to find the right balance.

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About Anna

My name is Anna Björklund and I live in a small town just outside Stockholm, Sweden together with Johan and our kids Linus (8) and Alva (5). We’re also expecting the addition of a new little baby to our family, in May this year.

Right now I’m staying at home, waiting for the baby to arrive, but normally I work as a Patent Engineer at the Swedish Patent and Registration Office, handling applications within the field of Biotechnology.

I stumbled over this fabulous hobby after my first child was born in 2003. Scrapbooking wasn’t very well known in Sweden at that time, but it has grown enormously since then! It’s been so much fun to follow this development and I just love scrapbooking more and more. I love that scrapbooking can be done in so many different ways. Sometimes the most important thing is the story I want to tell, sometimes I have a beautiful photo that I want to preserve and other times I just want to have fun experimenting and playing with paint and other supplies.

I am very happy and proud to be designing for Cocoa Daisy, Pencil Lines and for a Swedish wholesaler, Engströms Artstudio. I am also part of the team for a Swedish inspirational blog, SWE Scrapbook. I also blog regularly.

Thank you so much for having me as a guest on your blog Sue!

Words & Perspectives: Spirit // Future

2011-04-08T04:00:00.000-06:00

The journaling on this layout comes from a poem by Deanna Beisser “The Things You Want Them to Remember”:

“Before I leave this world, I want to tell my children a few very important things about who I am and what I believe. It may not make a difference in the big scheme of things, but at least for me, I will feel as if I shared my heart and the truths of my soul. I want them to know that my spirit danced with each new day and quietly kissed each evening goodnight, that I loved them with all that I am, and that wherever their journeys lead them, my love will be there, too.”

Who will tell my story when I’m gone? What IS my story? Why is it important? These are all questions I think about from time to time as I document the life of my family.

It’s easy to scrapbook the everyday moments and special events, but what lies deeper are the stories that need to be told.

Who am I?

Who are you?

We must always remind ourselves to scrapbook for the future. Future generations would be lost without a past.

Supplies: Cardstock: Recollections; other: markers, pens, adhesive.

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About Danielle:

Danielle Hunter is a native of Ohio, USA where she created her first scrapbook at the age of four. Her artistic scrapbooking style showcases layouts that are graphic with bold colors to fun and eclectic pages. Danielle is a member of the Glue Dots, MemoryWorks and ScrapTiffany design teams. She is the founder of Snap.Scrap.Blog.Tweet, a MemoryWorks Consultant and owner of Scrappin’ Memories 4U. Danielle’s new project, ecoScrapbook, is launching in April, along with an Etsy shop.

Words & Perspectives: Spirit // Rainbow

2011-04-07T04:00:00.001-06:00

Sometimes when I look at a rainbow, I dwell on one very important facet of my life and that is my love of animals and the dogs that have given me their unconditional love. I think of the Rainbow Bridge and believe with all my heart that it must exist. For, what is a rainbow, but a symbol of hopes and dreams living in your heart?

How could there be a heaven without animals? I can only imagine what a joyous occasion it will be when my fur-friends and I are reunited. I can see my sweet Chili, healed from the autoimmune diseases that took her from me much too early in her life. I can feel Brandy’s soft fur and I know she will very gently hold my hand in her mouth, because that’s what Labs do. Tiffany, my Yorkie, will be spinning in frantic, but happy, circles as she did so many times when she was excited. Jezebel, my Rhodesian Ridgeback, will lie down beside me and allow me to use her hip as a pillow for my head.

Rainbows make me smile, for they remind me of the many fur-friends that have enriched my life. Each was a beloved member of my family and each will always owns a special place in my heart.

------

About Maggi

Maggi lives in NC with her wonderful husband and two standard poodles that she refers to as the spoos. They are her children and of course, she does a lot of layouts featuring her furkids.

Maggi and her husband have been married for 18 very happy years, and in those 18 years they have lived in Washington DC, Fairbanks, Alaska, Denver, CO and North Carolina. They are not currently military, but her husband is a retired Navy pilot and Maggi was an Army brat.

Moving is second nature to them and every 2 - 3 years they get the bug to move. However, they have nailed the furniture down and they're not moving again! They do like to travel with the spoos in their motorhome and that means she also does a lot of travel layouts.

She thinks she has always been a scrapper, she just didn’t know it! She had scrapbooks as a teen with all kinds of ephemera in them. Unfortunately, in her later years, she was so embarrassed by her silly childhood collections that she destroyed them! There was a mostly disintegrated leaf from a tree at Paul McCartney’s house in there. That is a clue to her age. Then in 2005, she started scrapbooking as we know it today and she is completely OCD about it!

Maggi loves scrapping 12 x 12 pages but she also have a real love for making paperbag albums, ATCs, and something she recently discovered, arches. For her, scrapbooking is an artistic adventure:
"What can I create next, how can I make this piece of paper come to life? How can I tell the story that is hidden in this photograph?"