Slowly getting back to the swing of things

Thud! What's that? I'm posting more than once a week? Crazy talk! So I'm really late to the scheduled posting thing but wow what a time saver! All part of that seeking a balance thing huh? Might help me to read directions on things.

I wanted to share another layout that I had done this past weekend. I was flipping through the new Spring edition of Scrapbook Cards today that I got in my order from Scrapshotz.com and found this great layout by Kathy Laferty Thompson that I had to lift! Of course she did a better job but I so love this photo of Owen!

I had lots of fun mixing up a few different paper companies on this one. I used Echo Park playground, Bo-Bunny Ad-lib and Jillibean soup.

Trying something new

Wow so apparently I'm not so good at keeping up with 2 blogs. I'm hanging my head in shame. If you'd like to check out the other one head over here...www.stamphappyrebecca.stampinup.net

Finally got a chance this weekend to play around with some new crafty  stuff and to scrapbook some new photos :) that's all kinds of fun in my book. So loving everything about this layout...this is going to be framed on my wall! Thanks for stopping by!

A night at the Oscars online crop

All weekend I've been over at Scrap Shotz participating in the online crop that Sandy has put on. Its been so much fun working on the challenges put forth by the desgin team, of which I'm in my last month as a guest designer. Here are some of the projects that I made.

 Loving this layout about Owen and his cute baby talk that is slowly fading away as he gets older.

 This one is a favorite too! Abby has done the same thing but with eggs, butter and flour when she was the same age.

 This was a cutie make and take calendar put forth by Ruby from SSZ. So easy to do and great to have on my scrapbooking desk.

 This card was one of the easiest to make and I love how great it looks.

Thanks for stopping by!

Get ready for a long one...

Wow so for all my good intentions I've been a horrible blogger. Life has been sort of busy in some areas and not in others. I admit that I've been down in the dumps for the past month or so and it had to do with lots of reasons. Some being the crappy weather, cause when you don't want to examine you or yourself too closely its a good standby to blame the weather, ha! Course with the crappy weather I don't see my dh much and its hard on all of us.

Thankfully I've had great friends, some pretty great kids (most of the time) and some semi regular craft time that's been keeping me going. For a while I was thinking that I picked the wrong word for 2011. My word restore seemed to totally be non-exsistant for what I wanted it to represent. My weight stalled, work stuff was not what I wanted and I was just blech.

I've come to the realization that I'm not blessed to be one of those people who can ignore her food choices and still slide by. I was bitter, its not fair that I have to watch every.single.morsel of food that graces my lips for fear of jumping up another size or 2. After about 2 weeks full of woes is mes I've gotten a new mindset. Yup it sucks but I can't change that. So a daily food journal came into play, more water was added to my diet and daily (well 5x/week) exercise has started me down that slow road, again. I'm not going to lie, its a daily, hourly and sometimes minutely struggle to make the good food choices but I'm trying.

My work has gotten a great boost with adding 2 new families to my dayhome. And adding girls has been a great joy! They add a new dynamic to our dayhome and that has been great. Life is busy here but wonderful!

As for my crafting, I've been doing some teaching for Stampin' Up! and creating for Scrapshotz as a guest designer. I've been enjoying both and I've been finding great joy and peace in both. That time I spend creating is so refreshing for me as a mom that I'm better able to cope with things beyond my control.

This was our class for Stampin' Up! that was so much fun. It was great to see some regular students and some new ones, always awesome to find new crafting friends. Can't wait for the next class! I've had a request for a card night so that will be in the works shortly.

The following are layouts and a mini album that was created for Scrap Shotz. I got to use the very new line from Little Yellow Bicycle called Twig. So up my alley! I had a blast creating these layouts and everything went together so easily!

Family Canvas

I've been holding on to 2 of these giant canvases for the last few years just waiting for the right photos. I orginally was planning on use one for each of the kids but then we had Owen and well plans change. So I decided to finally get working on this project. I was very happy with our family photo this year so I printed it out 8.5" by 11" and began. I did run into some problems because it was just a large piece, I never buy more than one sheet of pattern paper at all. And for those that know, local scrapbooking stores are almost non-exsistant. So I actually changed my plan half way through my project.

I'm so much of a complete one project before I move on to the next kind of person that I tend to be a fairly quick scrapbooker. This project has been marinating on my desk and in my brain for a week! Its been very challenging for me! The colors I used match with my home decor (minus the fisher price classic toy colors) of chocolate brown, pumpkin pie orange, so saffron yellow, and cherry cobbler with a hint of cream. I had to have things sort of match with my yellow walls, which I hate but am not able to repaint at this point.  But I'm super happy with how it turned out!

Versitile stamps!

I got this great stamp and punch set from Stampin' Up!'s new Occasions mini catalogue called create a cupcake. Such a great set because you can use it for girly cards, male cards and kids cards.

 If you would like to purchase this set and making punch you can go here http://www.stamphappyrebecca.stampinup.net/

 Check out these cute mini roses! You can get these through the catelogue too. They make great toppers for these cutie cupcakes.

Welcome to a New Year!

For all 4 of you who came back to see my little blog thank you! For those who lurk I love you too, lol! I decided to take an unoffical blog hiatus over the holidays and really it was so nice! I spent the holiday with family, crafting and actually watching movies! I never sit and watch a movie! Crazy.

I also spent a lot of time reflecting on what I wanted 2011 to mean to me and what I could do to accomplish that. I picked my one word to summerize what I want 2011 to be (http://www.aliedwards.com/) and I chose restore. There were many reasons for this word and it fits so well with many aspects of my life. One being that I want to restore my body to what it was before I got pregnant with Owen. I had done so well in losing so much weight and I've struggled to shed a good chunk (litereally) And with the past few months with me struggling mentally with things, eating comfort foods has gotten to be a very bad habit. So I will begin with today. I know it won't be an easy goal to accomplish but I'm committed to doing so. Today will start with me cleaning out the bad foods from my pantry and drinking more water, less coffee.

In continuing with this word, I'm going along with Cathy Z's Move more eat less campaign. http://cathyzielske.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/12/a-year-of-moving-more-and-eating-less-in-scrapbook-pages.html  Still undecided if I want to show pictures, not sure if I'm brave enough :)

The word restore also goes along with something else I'd like to do this year. I want to restore stability to our family, I've got a few goals that go with this as well, but I've got plans set in motion to do so. I'm expecting great blessings for our family this year and I'm excited about them!

So much going on

Wow crazy long time since I last posted. I always grumble in my head about those people who only update their blogs once in a while and here I'm doing the same. I'm sorry! The last few months have been so different for me in so many aspects that blogging hasn't been a priority. My children have gotten older and their problems and school lives have gotten much more demanding. Anyone who says having a baby is hard work hasn't had a junior high student yet, lol!

Things with my dayhome business have been very different as well. Last year at this time I was full to the brim with children and it was crazy and great all at the same time. This year, well, its been quiet. I'm learning to be thankful for the quiet but in reality its a bit concerning for me. I started my business because I love kids and I really wanted to be home with Owen. With only having 1 full time child and one less than full time child, I really need some extra kids :) so if anyone knows of anyone needing great childcare please feel free to give them my name 8)

Also I have decided to take my love of scrapbooking, cardmaking and crafts in general down a different avenue. I've offically signed up to be a Stampin' Up! demonstrater. As many of you can tell from my previous posts I'm a huge Stampin' Up! fan and I love to teach and share new ideas so this was a no brainer for me. For those in the Plamondon area please don't think that I'm undermining my fabulous sister-in-law Rhonda who was the previous demo. She had decided about a month ago to step down as a demo and has passed the stamping torch to me :)

So in January there will be another scrapbooking/cardmaking class where people can sign up for a kit and learn some fun new techniques. I'll keep you all posted with more details. I now have a website for all my Stampin' Up! creations and online ordering for those who aren't in the local area. Please feel free to check it out and leave me some feedback. The address is http://www.stamphappyrebecca.stampinup.net/  here you can sign up for my newsletter and recieve special promotions via email.

Big news post I know! But I'll leave you with some of my latest creations!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Which means projects for the Festival de Noel for us! This was the half way point for my dayhome kids in their gingerbread creation. After this they added more and more candies and icing. Awesome. Great (sweet!) project for 2-3 year olds :)

My own personal projects took a bit of a backseat so that Abby could finish as many as she could. She entered 5 and I only entered 3. I'll post photos later :)

Canadian Scrapbooker!

I'm so excited to finally be able to say I'm offically published! My first ever layout published in a scrapbook magazine! I'm on page 40 of the Winter 2010 addition of the Canadian Scrapbooker. And the icing on the cake? It's one of my favorite layouts about my boys <3

some at home scrapping

I'm not always able to go out scrapbooking but that's why I'm so happy to have a space to call my own. With this past weekend being an extra long one I was able to get some stuff accomplished as well as have some fun play time.

I so needed to scrapbook about my new coffee pot. I've had the worse run of coffee machines lately, with having 3 others die on me! Those who know me know I love my coffee so I decided to try a new kind out. I'm totally loving it!

This layout was done with Stampin' Up! Designer Series paper (Elegant Soiree), Ali Edward's stamps from Tech. Tuesday.

 I have a box set aside for new stuff that I get so that I can use some of the new fun scrapbooking purchases that I've made. But lately I haven't been digging into it due to getting monthly scrapbooking kits. These are papers that I got late in August from We R Memory Keepers. They worked so well with these photos of Abby.

 Some more oldies from the "new box" Jilliebean Soup papers paired with my go to favorite, crumb cake (kraft) paper from Stampin' Up! Owen loves to walk now that he has his monkey backpack/leash thing. I don't worry about him running off on me in the stores. Last time I tried him walking without the monkey I had to chase him around the local grocery store!

 LOVE this photo! My sweet man washing my floors! Wink wink! Layout was done with Crate papers.

 These next two layouts were done with Scrapshotz November kit featuring SEI moonrise papers.

 The only thing I added was some red chipboard hearts to Ethan's layout. I love the pop of color!

 This layout came from the "new box" too, but these papers were boughten so long ago that I forgot when! I do know that they are Basic Grey's Max & Whiskers papers.

I was able to get all these layouts done in 2 days despite having to feed my family and take care of other stuff. I used Becky Fleck's page maps 2 for all my jumping points for my scrapbooking this weekend. I love how it helps simplify the creative process without stifling it! I highly recommend it!

a bunch of randomness

So its been a while due to a whole lotta stuff and blogging always take a back seat. Sorry! This weekend I was pretty bummed about not being able to join a scrapbooking group to attend a great 3 day retreat that was close to my place. Totally sucked! But I've already made arrangements with my dh to watch the kids so that I could join my sister and my aunties/cousins for a the annual Girls' Shopping weekend. And really I felt guilty about asking him for a second weekend. Sometimes a girl's gotta choose! But I was lucky to be able to participate in an online crop at Scrap Shotz so I still got my scrap on!

 These are some of the cards and layouts that I made for various challenges. Sometimes its great to step outside your comfort zone and play a bit.

 This tractor layout was very outside of my zone. I'm not a big angler or someone who uses green a lot. Weird though, my biggest paper stash is green (both pattern paper and cardstock) so it must appeal to me somewhere deep down lol!

 These layouts were done with the Scrapshotz November kit featuring SEI moonrise papers and embellishments.

 Except this card, it was done with last year's Bo-Bunny pattern paper scraps.

 I also used a sketch from the new Becky Fleck's pagemaps 2 idea book. Its a great resource and worth the purchase price.

 Saturday morning also included some bribing. I got some quick photos of my kids and 2, count them 2 family photos taken. Not 2 good ones, 2 in total. Thank goodness one turned out great!

 My Owen has become a little monkey lately, demanding and *so* active! He always wants to see what's on the camera  but never wants to stay still. I'm happy to get what I get with his photos!

 My Abby, the poser. She was the most willing, except for her clothes. She was ticked at having to wear a shirt under her dress because it was cold. Bribery is fabulous.

 Ethan, who hates getting is photo taken almost as much as his dad. He's always colder than anyone else, more tired than anyone else and more done than anyone else. You should see him when he's sick (rolling eyes here!)

 the only photo I got! Thank goodness!

 My card challenge for the crop.

This layout was done for a layout race that I participated in. I just grabbed some of my Echo Park scraps and threw it together.

The new family addition. I got the go ahead from Ron to get myself a new camera, well new to me. I bought this bad boy off of ebay (barely used) for $500 less than the retail price. I'm thrilled to say its great and I'm looking forward to learning all the ins and outs of it. Ron's thrilled because he gets my other dslr.