Skipping November

Cardstock: Smoky Slate, Basic Gray, Natural White.
Stamps: Dictionary, Regarding Dahilias.
Ink: Smoky Slate, Midnight Muse.
Accessories: Basic Rhinestones, Window Frames Framelits, Whisper White Baker's Twine, Tag Punch (non SU)

So I saw a layout like this near the end on the Stampin' Up Catalogue(pg 196). The card was 4x4, but I have a hard time making cards that are 4x4 and wanted to try a standard layout.

I love these colours together and find the little rhinestones really pulled it all together. My new favourite framelit are the Window Frames.

When I took the picture of the card, it was a beautiful day a few weeks ago. The temperature has severely changed since then. This morning I dressed my son in his winter clothes and I grabbed my winter jacket. I am not ready for winter. I am also not looking forward to November. November is my least favourite month & I wish we could skip over the month and move into December.

On another note, my first of two Christmas Card classes is happening next week and I am beyond excited for it. I have so much left to do to prepare, but the cards I have made for it are awesome and I can't wait to show them off! There are only 2 spots left if you are still looking to join!

Nature Walks

Cardstock: Baked Brown Sugar, Whisper White, Early Espresso.
Stamps: Wetlands.
Ink: Early Espresso, Soft Sky, Baked Brown Sugar.
Accessories: Stylish Stripes TIEF, Natural Wood Buttons, Linen Thread.  

It's Monday again. I don't know where the weekends go. This one was slower than last weekend, but knowing that I have a busy day at work today just makes me wish the weekend was a few hours longer, or that I got to sleep in a little longer!

We also didn't have the same weather as last weekend, but we spent as much time out and about while we had what little sun we had. Sunday ended up being errands all morning, but Saturday was fun.

My husband received free vouchers through his work to go to Saunders Farm for the day. It was for all members of his work so we ended up meeting up with another couple we know who has a little girl the same age as my son. Saunders Farm was a lot of fun! We spent the first part of the morning on a huge slide at the entrance to the farm. My son was doing circles going up and down and my husband and I had to take turns taking him because he didn't stop! We also spent a lot of time with the farm animals and then went on a wagon ride.

We left right around nap time and then I went off to a hair appointment. I decided I really needed a change and a change is what I did! My hair is now Auburn coloured with copper and blond highlights. I really love my hairdresser! She knew exactly what I wanted!

The card created for this blog post reminds me of a walk we took last weekend. We have a pond in our subdivision and it makes for a good nature walk. Throughout the summer, there were lots of ducks and Canadian geese and sometimes to odd heron. Cattails surround the pond and at the right time of the evening, you can catch the sunset!

Baked Brown sugar and Soft sky are slowly becoming new favourites of mine. I also love the new Stylish lines TIEF. I feel like it can make a card look really elegant.

I posted and event to my Christmas Card class on Friday night. I now only have 3 spots remaining! I can't wait!

Owl of Us!

Cardstock: Soft Sky, Whisper White, Gumball Green, Basic Gray, Smoky Slate.
Stamps: Take Care, Petite Pairs.
Ink: Early Espresso, Gumball Green.
Accessories: Owl Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Bird Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, Small Oval Punch, Googly Eyes, Dimensionals.

Every year, at the beginning of the year (or near the end of the year) my place of employment puts everyone's name in a hat and we draw names for birthdays. Drawing someone's name means you are in charge of bringing a cake (baked or bought) and a card. The card is passed around secretly, so that everyone can sign it. We always try to make it a surprise for each other, even though if your birthday is soon, a cake is coming and "Happy Birthday" will be sung.

The birthday I had was yesterday. I spent some time making the card above and knew it had to be large on the inside because I work in an allergy office that has 20 staff members. I made the card 5.5x12. I scored the inside at 4 inches and 8 inches. The card above is the front and the one on the Right was the Right panel. Each piece of Whisper White was sponged in Soft Sky with a mask of the scallop circle punch.

I made 6 owls (because 20 was just to much). The inside was printed through Microsoft Word and says, From "Owl" of Us!

 
I brought a Chocolate fudge cake for the Birthday and it was delicious. Who doesn't love Chocolate?? I didn't make the cake, but I can make a card!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weekend Full of Thanks

Cardstock: Sahara Sand, Pumpkin Pie, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla.
Stamps: Take Care, Marvelous Maple, Teeny Tiny Wishes.
Ink: Early Espresso, Pumpkin Pie, Sahara Sand.
Accessories: Owl Punch, Chevron Border Punch, Googly Eyes (retired), Dimensionals.

Every weekend is usually full of events to go to or things to get done around the house. Like I said in my last post, I was happy to have a three day weekend to relax and move at our own pace, but this weekend flew by and I can't believe it's Monday already.

At the top of our list for the weekend was to finish our son's Antique Spool bed. We bought the bed early in the summer and it has taken us all summer to finally have it refinished. I'm pretty proud to say that my husband and I did it ourselves and it is looking gorgeous. We spent the first days cleaning the wood (we have been sanding pieces throughout the summer) and applying the first coat of stain and OMG I am in love with gel stain. I have never stained before, but had a picture in my head of a drippy mess all over a bed we spent so long prepping. Well, gel stain is the easiest thing ever. You grab a staining sponge and rub it into the wood.

The second day was spent grabbing a few extra things we needed and applying a second coat of stain while our son napped. Then it was onto finishing our basement shelves. We are installing "built-in" shelving on a long wall in our basement. This has also been a few months in the making and finally all the pieces are coming together. I promise to post pictures once it's complete, but that might take another month.

Finally, last evening, my son, husband and I sat down to our Thanksgiving dinner. Since we had a big Turkey feast last weekend, we made a baked ham, scallop potatoes and baked beans. It is my favourite meal and always reminds me of Sunday dinners back home. I am so happy to have finished so much around our house, but I am ready to just spend the day relaxing!!

I hope all my Canadian followers had a happy Thanksgiving.

Thankful

Cardstock: Real Red, Tangerine Tango, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla.
Stamps: Marvelous Maple.
Ink: Real Red, Tangerine Tango, Crushed Curry, Early Espresso.
Accessories: Woodgrain TIEF, Sponge Daubers, Expressions Thinlit die.

Wow, what a month. It's been so long since I posted and I hope to start and get back into the swing of things again.

While everyone will be celebrating Thanksgiving here in Canada, my family and I plan to take it easy and finish some chores around the house. We celebrated Thanksgiving / my husbands birthday last weekend and I'm looking forward to just relaxing and working at our own pace.

Thanksgiving is always a time of reflection and I have so much to be thankful for. I am so thankful for the family I have and my supportive husband. Since taking my son out of the home daycare he was in, it has been stressful trying to get back on schedule with life. We are now exiting the final week of our "bad" schedule and hopefully things will be more on track.

I am thankful for the job I have. I love the job I do and the people I work with. I am back on a schedule where I work 4-5 days a week depending on my husband's schedule and I'm so happy it's possible for my husband and I to work around our schedule's so that we can be home with our son 1-2 days during the week.

I also have many friends to be thankful for. If I wasn't given the little push I needed, I don't think I would be creating cards the way I am now. My "Thankful" card was created for my September class and after I was done making it, I wasn't sure how the girls would feel. While using the Expression Thinlits to make the card, I ripped two in half. I also smudged ink while trying to stamp the maple leaf.

Before stamping the maple leaf, I sponged a bit of one colour of ink on a piece of blank paper. I then stamped the image with Early Espresso ink. After cutting the leaves out, I took more ink in orange and brown and sponged around the edges. They were then popped up with dimensionals. I love how the leaves turned out on the card.

I will be hosting 2 Christmas classes starting in November. If you are looking for more information, please visit my upcoming events page. I will also be adding an event to my Facebook soon.

Great Experiences

Cardstock: Raspberry Ripple, Crisp Cantaloupe, Whisper White.
DSP: Birthday Basics.
Stamps: July Paper Pumpkin Background Stamps, Sassy Salutations.
Ink: Bermuda Bay, Crisp Cantaloupe.
Accessories: Bird Bunch, Oval Framelits, In Colour Dahlias, Two Way Glue Pen, Dazzling Details Glitter,  Dimensionals.

We are back from a great trip to North Conway, NH and we have a busy week ahead. I have a card class on Tuesday and three daycare interviews lined-up! I'm also starting back at work full-time. I hope everyone can send me good vibes over the next few days.

Our trip to New Hampshire started off with some difficulties (minor rear ender in Montreal), but we had an amazing trip and it was just the right amount of time to be away. Our first night was pretty relaxed, but we woke up early the next morning to climb drive Mount Washington. It was so beautiful and such a great experience. The next day, was our anniversary and what better way to spend it then shopping at the many outlets stores in North Conway. We also booked a tour on a 55 min scenic train ride from North Conway to Conway. It was also a lot of fun and our son and he loved it!

When we left on Friday, we decided we would take a different route home so that we could stop at the Ben & Jerry factory in Stowe, Vermont. I didn't know much about Ben & Jerry before arriving there, but I was really amazed with their story. While there, we went on a tour and tried a sample of a new test flavour. We then went for lunch and went back again for our own cones!

It was such a great vacation and I can't wait to create a scrapbook with everything we did!

The layout for this card was found in the July/August edition of Stampin' Success. I decided I would use the background stamp from the July Paper Pumpkin, but otherwise there wasn't much stamping. I have found that I am an accessory junkie and I can't make a card without one. The sparkle on the candle and the dahlia really made this card!

I hope everyone has a great week ahead and wish me luck for mine!

Difficult Decisions

Cardstock: Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, Whisper White.
Stamps: I Dig You
Ink: Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black.
Accessories: Chevron TIEF, Square Framelits, Finishing Touches Edgelits,
 Metallic Brads, Dimensionals.

I am so glad that this week is finally over. I am glad to be going on vacation and getting away from the difficult decisions we made over the past week.

My son has been attending a home daycare since I went back to work at the end of January. It was a difficult transition for him and finally started to have good drop offs about 6 weeks after starting there. We were comfortable with his provider and we knew he was learning when he would come home and knew songs and actions to the songs we sang.

Over the summer however, his drop offs became more difficult and we didn't understand why, especially when our son is very independent. After our holidays in July, he returned and had 3 good weeks of drop offs, but then reverted back this past week. On Wednesday, my husband and I finally came to the conclusion that the daycare he was attending wasn't for him and we were going to look elsewhere. I felt sick just making the decision and it was hard for me pretty much all week, but I am happy with the decision we made.

I have already had 3 phone interviews and we have 3 interviews/ tours set up for when we come back from vacation. I'm already very hopeful about one of them! I just want the person who will be taking care of our son, to take care of him and treat him the way my husband and I would.

Anyways, over the weekend, we attended a 2nd birthday party for a little boy my son goes to daycare with. It was cute to see the kids he interacts with each day and finally meet parents we only see in passing. We made the card for him above after my son picked out which stamp we should use. My son is big into trucks and I was so happy when I found the retired set "I Dig You". I saw a tutorial on how to make a lamp shade with a stamp set and I plan on doing that with the stamp set when we redo my sons room....if trucks are still his thing then.

I have a class next Tuesday, September 10th if you would like to join. The cards I made put a smile on my face and I think everyone will like them as well! Please RSVP by September 6th if you would like to join.