Welcome 2010

It feels weird to me that it's 10:30pm (or close to) and that I'm blogging. I haven't written an actual post that wasn't centered on scrapbooking in who knows how long. It's not that I don't have things to say, get me on the phone and you can't shut me up, I'm with the kids all day so conversation is really something I enjoy! I can't say I will miss 2009. The year was just okay for me. The last half especially sucked for me, starting in July when I was laid off while on my mat leave due to the company closing it's doors. I started the day home in October when my mat leave was over, and it hasn't been an easy journey. I have had more challenges with my four year old son than I've ever had in his entire life. He has been difficult, not listening, no respect, and just general bad behaviour. I have tried devoting extra time to him, and it hasn't helped, as everyone thought his issue was jealousy, or boredom. I still don't know what it is, things haven't really changed at all. Having the day home is not working for me even on a more personal level. I know some women find real meaning in being there for there kids, and caring for little ones. And while I do want to be there for my kids, and they are my first priority, I can't say I am finding the personal satisfaction in changing poopy diapers and feeding kids 12 times a day (at least that's what it feels like!) I have been applying for jobs for the last month, and have had at least 4 interviews, but no offers. The last one sounded really positive but I didn't get a call back, so I've decided to actually call back myself and find out what the reason was for why I didn't get this one. Is it my references, my interview, anything in particular, or just a matter of someone being more qualified than me, or being just as qualified but able to start right away? This is really kicking the crap out of my self confidence, as for the first time in my life, I don't have a job. I have always, and I mean ALWAYS been offered the job if I had an interview for it, and I know the job market has changed a little bit due to the economy, but I just don't get it. I'm personable, reliable, have a good resume and am an honest, hard working person. And yet, I feel like I'm incapable of getting a job, and it makes me feel like a loser. Financially, we're okay for the moment, I have the little girl coming to my day home until March, but if I don't find something by then I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I really want a job, and that is my goal for 2010! I found personal satisfaction in doing books at the job I was at, and it was my dream job, great hours, great pay, great people, and I was so sad to see the job disappear. It's kind of hard to go to anything else after having that, but I will. The only hard part is, I can't even go work nights, as I had thought about even working at Tim Hortons (which could be trouble as anyone that knows me knows how much I love my Timmies) but because of the hours my hubby works, which are very irregular and he's on call, I have to work daytime hours where I have guaranteed child care. SO needless to say, the last half of the year has sucked for me on a very personal level, not having work, financial stress, plus the stress of feeling like a crappy mom for yelling at my son all day, and it has been so bad some days that I'm crying over the mac and cheese as I make the kids lunch. I have really been struggling, and I find it funny how one small change like place of employment can impact me so much, in how I view myself, how I think others view me, and how it can all snowball into so many other areas of my life.

On the other hand, while I've been at home, I've been able to devote a lot of my time to my new passion, which is obviously digital scrapbooking. I've met some wonderful designers through blogging that I wouldn't otherwise have had the chance to get to know, and I now call some of them friends! Even if they're only cyber friends, but I think it's a really cool thought to know that I have friends all over the world. I'm grateful to be on several creative teams, and have the honor to do layouts with some great kits! I've found the digi-scrapping world to be friendly and warm, and I really love doing it. It's also challenged me to take better photos, and I really want to get my camera off the auto setting in the new year.

My family has also grown and changed in the last year, my daughter who was born in the fall of 2008 when I first started blogging is now 15 months old, walking talking and full of attitude! My son and I have had a rough few months, but he tells me he loves me constantly and I am enjoying seeing new aspects of his personality emerge, between all the bouts of bad behavior. My husband and I celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary this year, and we have a solid relationship, I know he will always be there when I need him, and no matter what challenges I've had I know he will always love me.

So there have been ups and downs, but I do have a lot to be thankful for. In the new year, I am going to be more positive, and take some concrete steps to get my life back where I want it to be. I want to be a good mom for my kids, and truly enjoy the time I have with them. I want to feel like a positive person, and try to eliminate those critical and negative thoughts that I often have. I think a lot of who you are starts right there in your own thoughts, which are powerful things for something so intangible. I never blogged about losing my job before, I guess I wasn't ready to share it, and now just feels like the right time to purge it. Get rid of it in the last hour before the year is over, so I can leave all the poopy stuff back in '09. So if I've said it once, I'll say it a million times, thanks to all of you that read my posts. This blog has been a weird little trip for me, starting out with some ramblings and the odd rant here and there about whatever happened to grab my attention at the moment, to a crafty blog where I shared my quilting and sewing passion (which is still a passion, it just gets pushed to the back burner more often now that Rayna is more mobile and my time is more limited). Then it's changed yet again to show off my love of digital scrapping. Who knows what it'll be like next year at this time. So thanks for hanging out with me, I really do appreciate it. And while I hope for better things for myself for the new year, I also wish every one of you the best! I hope all your dreams come true, and the new year brings you opportunities to do things you never thought you would, the courage to grab those opportunities, and the love and support to enjoy the windfalls. Good riddance to this year, and welcome 2010! Happy New Year everyone!

Freebies!

Hey guys, busy busy busy time of year, I haven't had time to post anything lately! Just thought I would pop on to let you know there are some freebies floating around, check out this Christmas freebie kit from Stacey: and a layout I did today with it:
Also, Vicki has a winter freebie on her blog too, she is releasing it in bits every week, so make sure you head over there and check hers out as well!

I also did this little hybrid project using a kit called Indigo Winter by Kitty Designs and a template by Kelly Ratzlaff, as I needed a box for some of the gift cards I bought this year (I totally rocked the gift cards, it made shopping for nieces and nephews so much easier!!) and this matchbox was the perfect size!!I don't know if you can tell by the photos, but my un-naturally sweaty hands made the ink start to come off onto my fingertips, leaving me with blue tipped fingers for the rest of the day. Funny that it comes off the paper, but not off my fingers!! Anyways, hope your Christmas was jolly and your boxing day deals were wonderful (if you're into that, which I so am not!!) and that you had some relaxing time with your family! Our Christmas was pretty good, the kids were moderately well behaved this year, and I stuffed myself at not one but two turkey dinners! And even though things have been tight, Santa was good to everyone in my family this year too! If you don't hear from me before the New Year, best wishes to everyone!!

Things that Go

Hey all! Just a quick post to let you know Mel has a new kit out today, called Things that Go! It's a bright fun kit perfect for layouts of your kids! Mel went all out and there are extras like brag books, flairs and additional alphas! Check it out:Here is my first layout! I think it feels kind of cheesy, but I love the extraction, and think it also looks kind of cute. Cheesy but cute. Not super inspired maybe, but a fun little layout. This layout is more typical of what I tend to do!! lol. Chase building his train set. I also used a template by Janet Phillips.

So as always, thanks for looking, and happy scrapping!

Merry & Bright

Hey all, hope you're feeling merry and bright these days! Christmas is coming up so fast, I haven't quite had time to feel the spirit, but I hope it creeps up on me soon. I remember that feeling as a kid, the anticipation and the waiting, and it just doesn't feel like it used to. Anyways, that's another story for another time! I really just wanted to do a short and sweet post about Kathy Winter's new Christmas kit called Merry and Bright. It's a really cute hand doodled kit and it was so much fun to do layouts with. Here is the full preview:She has a separate alpha that comes in six different colors to coordinate however you like on your layout. I love this alpha! So whimsical.

My first layout is of my daughter, getting busted sneaking into the cookies when I ran upstairs to change. I come downstairs to find her sitting on the floor shovelling cookie into her face, with the evidence spread out all around her!! I have to hand it to her, she did try to share when she saw me!! I was so mad at the mess right in that moment, but had the brains to grab my camera and take a couple photos, knowing that it was a scrapable moment. Now I think it's cute and funny, but at the time all I was thinking was that I had another mess to clean up!
And this one was her again, only last year at this time!! They grow and change so much, although with the way she is getting into everything that 4 month age sure looks good again!! She's still not sleeping through the night anyways, so I think I'd be farther ahead if she had quit growing!! I also used a freebie template from Vicki's blog, so if you like the layout, head on over there and snatch up the template!! She also has a collection of previous blog freebie templates in the store (four of them for only a dollar!!), and you can find those ones HERE.Also, some of the other fantastic girls that are on Kathy's CT with me made you some freebies, I think there are some gift tags and a quick page on Kathy's blog, so make sure you go snag those to go with your kit! I'm off to bed now, to nurse this awful cold I have. Any time spent sitting at the computer leaves me congested to the point of not being able to breathe through my nose!! Thanks for looking, and I hope you are enjoying every moment leading up to the big magical day!!

K is for Kitty

And Stacey's alphabet series continues! I seriously don't know how she keeps coming up with these ideas! Here is her new kitty kit, called K is for Kitty:Aren't those little doodled kitties the cutest? And of course, this gave me an excuse to scrap my photos of bud from this spring. (I took these photos just a couple weeks before he died! So weird how that worked out. It was a very sad day, you can read about it HERE if you want.)And this one was more of my little tribute to him, the faded photo of him and the faded paw print are how I feel, I still think about him quite often, and he definitely left paw prints on our hearts! I used the font P22 Cezanne for the title.

This is a great kit if you have kitty's!! Go grab it while it's on sale for the first 48 hours, and check Stacey's blog for any goodies she might have for you!

Mystical Memories

Vicki has done it again! Here is her new kit, Mystical Memories:

This is my layout:

These are my little birdie friends, that come eat at my bird feeder all day! I love watching them hanging out on my deck, although they are going to cost me a fortune to feed all winter! The font is by Darcy Baldwin.

Winter's Lullaby

Just a short post tonight, I wanted to let you know about this beautiful kit by Oopsie Daisy, it's called Winter's Lullaby, and is jam packed with 20 papers and 80 elements, and it's only $3 right now! Here is the full preview:and my layouts:
Have a great day, and happy scrapping!

Baby it's cold outside!! And a freebie!

The last few days, it has been between -35C and -52C at my house. I'm so not even kidding! See?! I think my lens even fogged up as it was so cold outside!! This was this morning. I still packed up the kids, and off to pre-school we went to drop Chase off! Unless the school is closed, we go!! That's life in Northern Alberta for ya!! lol.

Anyways, I got out this weekend to get some shopping done, so I'm pretty much all set there except for my hubby, who I hope to finish off this week. Other than that, Christmas can come if it wants to!! I've got the perogies, cabbage rolls and meat pies in the freezer, so all is well. I even had a little time today to do some crafting, I decided to make Chase this really simple polar fleece neck warmer...only it turned out to be not so simple...for me!! (And if any of my crafty friends are reading this and can tell me what the heck I'm doing wrong, please step in, as I spent two hours picking stitches out, because I keep trying different ways to sew it together! This is how it starts out, and how I would like it to look, green around the one side, and the camo on the other. So the inside is one color, and the outside is another. I wanted to make sure all the seams ended up on the inside, so I sewed the ends of the green together, and I sewed the ends of the camo together, and slipped one inside the other and sewed the tube at the top and bottom, leaving a space for turning. But...When I turned it, this is what it looked like!! A narrow tube not large enough to fit over Chase's head!! And the colors aren't where they are supposed to be either, and there is a seam right in the middle!! AURGH! I totally took these pictures thinking I was going to post a cute little tutorial on how to do this, then realized I couldn't even figure it out myself. I'm totally going to email my pal Ashley at Make it and Love it and see if she can tell me how to do this!!! Seriously, such a simple concept and I have buggered it up beyond the point of it being worth it! I just want to go buy one for $8 and say forget it! lol. Ashley, help a girl out, won't you? Look, I'm pathetic. lol.In other news, Cheri at Dream Big Designs has a freebie collab kit on her blog this week, so cyber run over there and check it out! The bright colors are so much fun.Here is my layout, you may not be able to read the journalling, but it just talks about what a sassy little girl my daughter is becoming!! Also, the girls at Scrap that Idea have a great shopping incentive, or deal, or whatever you want to call it! Check this out:

Isn't that great? You get to give and receive at the same time, what could be better than that? Not much if you ask me. Thanks for hanging out with me today, if you're in a warmer climate, please send some sunshine and warmth our way!! (It's supposed to be only -3C by Friday, isn't that crazy!!)

Starry Starry Night

If any of you is looking for the cutest Christmas kit, you've found it!! Mel has released this gorgeous kit, and the elements are so cute! I love the papers, and the colors are perfect. Here is the preview of Starry Starry Night:And here is my first layout, I used a template by Colie's Corner, and everything else from the kit.And this one is my first ever two page layout, and I just love how it turned out!! Aren't the star characters the cutest? I just love it. I used a template from Scrapping With Liz for this one as well, I just love her templates. I also used a font (can't remember which one at the moment) and this tutorial on the Daily Digi for the title. And special thanks to my nephew for posing for me!

So that's it, that's all! Hope you are all enjoying this Christmas season and soaking in as much relaxation as you can, and trying to keep in your heart what the season is all about! I know I am! As always, thanks for visiting, and happy scrapping!

Live, Laugh, Love

Vicki has a great new kit out, called Live, Laugh, Love, check it out:

I just love the colors in this kit! Here are my layouts:

For the first one I used DJB Journal Bits font as well as Hand Stamped Alpha by Michelle Coleman.This was a great kit to work with, and I loved the colors. The papers were fantastic! I'm also no longer going to post all the fonts that I'm using, as it just takes too much of my time, however if you see one you like, leave a comment and I'll let you know what it was!

J is for Jam Session

Have any guitar hero photos? How about muscial photos in general? Well, I for one don't!! Our family is not musical at all, and this new kit of Stacey's called J is for Jam Session is one cute kit full of fantastic fun colorful elements and papers for those of you that do! Check it out:

And here is my layout, I did have this photo of my Grandpa Andy and Uncle Walter playing accordion (you don't see that any more!) and fiddle respectively. I recolored a few of the elements to match my layout, so it just goes to show you how versatile kits can really be!

Thanks for looking, and make sure you check out Stacey's blog, she may have a freebie for you!

Winter

I am so excited to tell you about Sara's new kit, Winter! It is absolutely gorgeous! I loved getting to play with this one! There are lots of glittery and snowy elements, and the colors are so beautiful. Here is the full preview:

And here are my layouts, I've really gotten fond of using templates lately, I have zero inspiration some days, and am really looking forward to Christmas break!! lol. This one I used a template by Dunia that was in my Digi Files #10 grab bag. The alphas that are in the Winter kit are so beautiful too! The photo is courtesy of my sweet little angel niece!This layout was a template also, but this one was a "jumper" by Crystal Livesay. I love how this turned out, and the dark blue paper is so pretty. And if you're quick, you can hop over to Sara's blog and grab a sampler of this kit!!

What? You're still here? Get going!! lol. Thanks for visiting, happy scrapping!

Old Fashioned Holiday

Hellllo blog land!! Kathy has a really great new Christmas kit out, it has very soft colors and really fantastic vintage looking elements! Here is a preview of Old Fashioned Holiday:

And my layouts, the first one I used a template by HapEscrapr, as well as the font P22 Cezanne.

So thanks for looking, have a great day and happy scrapping!

Mary's Boy Child

This is my all time favorite Christmas carol. I absolutely love the Boney M Christmas album, and we listen to it every year while decorating the tree. (A tradition my mom started!) Please ignore the fella's tight white shiny spandex type pants, and any dance moves that make you feel awkward lol.


Anyone else have any favorite Christmas carols? I'm always looking to add to my holiday music collection! I also like Martina McBride's Christmas album, as well as this one by the She Daisy:


I also love Anne Murray (of course) and I have a mixed country Christmas CD that has some good ones on it too. I'd love to hear what your favorites are!!

My Guy Ty

Hey everyone! Cheri over at Dream Big has a great new boy kit out, called My Guy Ty! Check it out:I just love Cheri's kits as she always has really unique elements that you don't see all the time. Here is one of my layouts, I used a template by Lindsay Jane.And this one was another template by Janet Phillips, and I'm finding I'm loving her templates, they're simple and quick and I always love how they come out. And don't you just love those road signs?

Make sure and stop by Cheri's blog for the freebies that the rest of the team will have for you! I haven't had time lately, but I'm hoping on the new year I'll have a little more free time to do some freebies for anyone that might like them! And if you want this kit, grab it right away, as Cheri will keep it on special for the first week!

Flirty Freebie kit!!

Hey guys, Mel has a new freebie kit on her blog, she's releasing it in four parts, so cyber-run over there (aka click the link) and grab the first part! Here is the preview of part one:

and here is what I did with the kit, using one of the newest templates from Scrapping with Liz. I deleted the snowflake layers to do this one, but love how it turned out!!

Happy scrapping!!

Get Fresh Freebie kit!!

Hey guys! Just wanted to let you know about a freebie kit over on the STI blog! The store has been down due to technical difficulties, and it is now back up and running full speed ahead! So in celebration the lovely ladies from the Scrap that Idea team have put together a freebie kit! Here is the preview:

And a layout I did with it, using a tutorial over at the Daily Digi to do the title:

So thanks for stopping by, and happy scrapping!

I Do, I Do, I Do!

Mel has a gorgeous kit out called I Do, I Do, I Do! It's great for weddings and anniversaries! Here is a full preview:
And my layouts:I'm the one closest to the bride that looks like she's freezing (because I was!!)And this is me seven months pregnant with my daughter last summer when my brother got married. "Glowing" may not be the right word lol. Make sure you go grab this kit while it's on special!!