It's the weekend

... a long weekend here in Canada! I hope you're all enjoying it.
We're at the trailer right now, enjoying a relaxing time.

I'm not sure if we'll have internet access, so I've got this post scheduled to post automatically.

Here's another layout share from the online crop over on Scrapbook Nerd that was held on National Scrapbook Day.

The challenge was a sketch challenge. I had a lot of fun with my texture paste and templates. I can't seem to do a layout right now without using it. Have you tried it yet?
Anyway, the photos are older, from over two years ago, when we went to Mexico. We spent a lot of time riding the trams because the resort was huge.

Have a great rest of the weekend.

A week in review

It's Friday already. What happened to this week?
It was pretty busy for me:

• -John was travelling for work. He left Sunday (yes, on Mother's Day) and came back late Wednesday night
• Last weekend - as already posted -  I was away at the Scrapbook Convention with 11 other of my scrappy friends
• On Mother's Day we went out for breakfast before Church - it was the only time we could all be together for the day. I loved every minute of it!
• Tuesday was spent with the girls, here, scrapping.
• dinner out on Tuesday with Janet and Joy - and Cameron. Milena stopped by for a few minutes
• a little bit of work stuff this week - not much - some orders to get out, and the newsletter
• some time spent trying to help Cameron get his paperwork together for his Specialist High Skills Major co-op that he has to do this summer

It's the first long weekend of the summer and we are heading here:

 

We're looking forward to a relaxing weekend mixed in with a little bit of work. It looks like the weather is going to be nice. Yay!

 

 

Now, before I shut off my computer, I'm going to share another layout from the online crop a couple of weeks ago. The photos were from Mother's Day last year.

Last Week on the Use Your Stuff Challenge Blog ....

Yes, that's right - last week! I'm a tad behind.

It was my turn to host the challenge and since I'm addicted to texture paste right now, the challenge was all about adding texture.

I used the Martha Stewart Texture Effects and a DCW Reversed Chicken Wire template to add the texture. I love the effect!!! Both of these, btw, can be found in the Scrapbook Nerd store.

This photo has been hanging around for a few years now. It was from a photography class I took at the local college. Cameron was  a lot younger then - back in the days when he was a willing model for my photos.

I'm Feeling So Inspired

We are finishing up our last day at the Great Lakes Mega Meet and it's been a blast. The shopping has been great and the classes have been awesome.

The coolest part was that I had the best surprise when we arrived.
In my last post I mentioned that there were 5 of us going. Well, 7 of my other scrapping friends showed up. Apparently they've been planning this surprise for a very long time. The plan was to just show up at our hotel room. The funniest part was that at one of our shopping stops on the way down we ran into two of the ladies in a store. They were acting very suspiciously and tried to tell us that they were just there for a quick day trip to do some shopping. Milena and I got talking and we quickly figured out that they were attending the Mega Meet and that they were trying to surprise us. I knew who the ring leader was, and sure enough, we spotted her, and the other 4 culprits in the parking lot. They were so busted! Our little group of 5 grew to 12! Needless to say there was a lot of bad behaviour going on for the last three days!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Great Lakes Mega Meet

I'm off today with some of my besties to attend the Great Lakes Mega Meet Scrapbooking Convention. We went last year and had so much fun that we couldn't not go this year.
We're going to have a few days of shopping, eating, laughing, and taking classes.

Before I take off, I'm sharing one more layout with you. This one is also from our online crop on Scrapbook Nerd.

The challenge was a no paper challenge. We were allowed to use cardstock for the base, but that was all ... with the exception of embellishments. It was a fun challenge to do and I want to try it again.

The pictures are from 3 years ago when Spencer graduated high school.

Celebrate Your Inner Nerd

I'm back to share another layout from the online crop at Scrapbook Nerd this weekend. The challenge I hosted was to celebrate your inner nerd. My layout is about Joy and I as we began to build Scrapbook Nerd into what it is now.

Time to get back into a regular blogging routine!

Life has become quite busy for me, but I'm determined to try and keep up with my blog.
So ... I'm going to start trying to post regularly again. I'm going to start with trying to post each day this week and maybe it will get me going again.

Starting up Scrapbook Nerd with Joy has been a lot of fun and a lot of work ... but even the work has been a lot of fun! Part of our vision of the online store is to create a real community feel that you can get from a brick and mortar store ... so we have an online forum. We have a great group of ladies who chat, and hang out there. It's so much fun. We've also just put together our first Design Team - it's very exciting.

This weekend we had an open house for the store, plus we hosted an online crop in the forums. It was so much fun - the ladies are so talented. There was a lot of creativity going on. You can check out what they made in our gallery.

I managed to get some scrapping done myself. This is a layout I did for an early-bird challenge.

 

Go over to Scrapbook Nerd and see what everyone else created. You'll be inspired, I'm sure.

This week on Use Your Stuff ...

... the challenge is to use a big title. I don't use big titles very often, but I love the look.

My layout is from our cruise last year during the March Break.

I think I need to use more kraft, too!

Join us on Use Your Stuff  to participate in the challenge. You can also find this challenge, and other ones on the challenge board at Scrapbook Nerd.

High Five For Friday

Two days in a row. I think I'm on a roll.
Can you believe it's Friday already? Why do I feel like I've missed a couple of days this week?

1. Our home away from home for a week. Oh how I wish we were still there! It was a fantastic cruise and a great itinerary.Too bad our ship wasn't the one that got stranded in St. Maarten.

2. One of our stops was in Barbados. For those who don't know, we spent 5 years living there ... in fact it was where Cameron was born. He was three when we moved back so he has very little memories. We rented a car for the day and tried to see as much as we could ... which ended up being not a lot.
One of the memories he has is of this hotel that we used to frequent as we had a membership. I made him sit in our usual spot.

I made sure to take Cameron to what I consider the most beautiful beach on the Island and he loved swimming in the powerful surf.

We also made a visit to Peter Pan Nursery School - his, and Spencer's, old nursery school - and to visit with his teachers - Margaret and Anna.

We didn't contact anyone else while we were there because we were so short on time and I wanted to make sure Cameron got around to see a few things.

3. The Lizzard Hunter - one of our guides claimed that Cameron would never catch one, but he did - in fact, he caught quite a few!

4. I finally got my hands on the new edition of the Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine. Have you seen it? Did you see what was on page 107? It's the ad for our new online store - Scrapbook Nerd
Pretty cool, eh?

5. The funniest moment of my week this week was when I was going up to bed one night and found Cameron lounging on a chair in the livingroom playing on his computer. He had fashioned himself a mohawk hat out of tinfoil. That kid makes me laugh!!

I'm linking up to other Friday High Fivers on From My Grey Desk.

I'm off this afternoon to go with the teens from our Church on their youth retreat. I know it will be a fun-filled weekend - but with very little sleep.
What are you up to this weekend?

Hopefully this is a return to regular blogging!

I've been such a bad blogger lately. I've fallen out of my regular blogging routine and it's time I get back to it, and back to reading the blogs that I follow.

So, in an effort to break out of the blogging hiatus, I'm going to try and jumpstart my posts with this edition of Thursday Thirteen.

Thirteen things that have kept me from blogging:

1. The Scrapbook Nerd Store.  It's been up and running for about 7 weeks now and it's going really well.  I've been rather preoccupied with it for a few months now - lots to do including ordering and receiving product, uploading to the website, filling orders, mailing orders, lots of phone meetings with my partner, Joy.
2. The Scrapbook Nerd Forums.  Since our mission statement it to try and capture the sense of community, and make connections with people who share our hobby, our Forums are very important to us. We've had a lot of great people joining us on the forums. It's been a lot of fun!
3. My family. They have been very supportive of the new venture and have been happy to jump in and fill in the blanks around the house. I've been trying to make sure they are getting a healthy portion of the attention pie.
4. Attending and hosting some crops in the past month.
5. Vacation. Last week, Cameron (my youngest) and I went away for March Break with my sister. We were on a cruise in the Caribbean. It was Heavenly.
6. Juggling Family Schedules - Cameron is the only one I really have to run around anymore - although I still have the occasion pick-up or drop-off at the bus for Spencer - but he's still involved in a few things that have meant that I still am in the business of running "Mom's Taxi.
7. I've been able to squeeze in a little of my own creative playtime that's not business related.
8. I've also been fortunate enough to have some time with friends. It's helped to keep me smiling.
9. Faith-based and Church activities. Now that Cameron's practices have been switched from Tuesday to Wednesdays, we can not attend the Bible Studies at Church on Tuesday nights. We've been really enjoying it.
10. Band practices of all types - Senior band, junior band, Divisional Youth Band, Jazz Band.
11. Trying to keep up with the everyday running of the house, although, I must admit that it's been a bit of a challenge to keep up and the family is helping out a lot in this regard.
12. Getting lost on-line. It seems that I have good intentions to blog, but then once I'm online my attention is easily diverted in one site or another.
13. Sleep - although I haven't been getting enough of this lately!

Want to participate in this weekly meme? You can check it out here: Thursday 13

this week on Use Your Stuff

The challenge is to do a winter-themed project.
I took some pictures on Friday of the big winter storm that blew through here. It was a snow day for us, and we couldn't have been happier! I love winter, but the last few winters here have been very dissappointing. So, Friday, we enjoyed every minute of it.

Come on over to the Use Your Stuff Challenge Blog and share your winter-themed projects.

In honour of Snowmaggedon in Toronto:

It's so funny ... and so true...

This week on Use Your Stuff

Lynne challenged us to use pink, red plus one other colour.
I don't use a lot of pink on my projects so it's always a challenge for me to do so.
I dug deep into my older stash that's been sitting around for a very long time, and used it up. I even plugged in my silhouette and used that.
I'm pretty happy with the result ... and it felt really good to spend some time playing again.

The Store is Now Open

 

We had a great and busy opening day. Thanks to everyone who came out to support us.

We've opened with limited product because we wanted to be able to pick up a lot of the new lines that have come out from CHA, so check back often to see what's new.

 

In the meantime, join in the fun on our forums and facebook page.

 

Use Your Stuff

I'm just popping on for a quick minute to share the past two weeks' layouts for the Use Your Stuff challenge blog.

The first one was for a challenge to do something birthday. This layout is of Spencer's 18th birthday.

 

and this week's challenge is to colour. (I used chalk to colour the edges of the papers and the flowers.)

 

Join us in the challenges. We'd love to see what you come up with.

 

On another note, we're very busy working on the store. 5 more days until it's open. Did you miss the news? You can find it here: Big News.