scrappy bits

just cre8 had an online crop this past weekend, and i was able to get some layouts done, as well as an altered book in a short amount of time. so here they are:

the altered book instructions came from jessi lute in innisfail - we still need to catch up for a coffee one of these days when i'm in the red deer area...


i turned this into a bit of a fantasy/future dream book for myself. love the fabric pages!

























i'm not finished with it yet, but because i love it so much, i'm sure it won't take me too long to do... i also forgot that 8 pages, folded in half, double sided makes 32, not 16 like i first had in my head... oops!

next up, a "recipe" to make 4 layouts, consisting of 4 patterned papers, 4 - 6 sheets of cardstock, and a few embellishments and letters. super easy, and all done in about a hour and a half. still need to add some journalling, but these layouts are all for our last trip to mazatlan and coordinate with what i've already done.









then another layout, the challenge was to do it in 30 minutes or less, the only time not counted was choosing the picture. i had the papers on my desk already from my book project, so was able to put this together in about 15-ish minutes.



and this super cute little sign for my scrapbook room!





and the last challenge i was able to finish, was to use chipboard as is, no paint, ink, paper, nothing. just plain.



i love the photo in this one of ds and my niece, walking across the world's shortest river in great falls at easter.

thanks for looking!

voted as the best mom ever...

by my 13 yo son.

why? because said "cool mom" is taking him to see dave matthews at the gorge in george, washington on september long weekend.

we've been talking about it for a few weeks now, and yesterday i bit the bullet, ordered the tickets, and booked our room for the weekend.

it will be one of those "priceless" trips, just the two of us. something we're both just a *little* bit pumped about. just a little bit crazy, we'll be in the car for 20-ish hours, leaving saturday morning, and returning home monday later in the day.

and i'm cool. oh yeah.

slide show day!

well, we've made some progress. we're sitting in what we can officially call a construction zone. the last two weekends have been spent inside, working at getting the kitchen ready for the new cabinetry. there has been some destruction. there is lots of dust. there has been some blood shed. but its all been worth it - we're getting there, and we can say we've done it ourselves.

what we had before:

working away:

on the shot that shows a portion of the floor, you'll notice there are bumps all over it. that would be where the linoleum/subfloor was. each of those bumps contains a staple. there were THOUSANDS of staples to pull out of the floor to prep for the cabinets. we're putting in hardwood, and they need to all be out. the boys and i have worked diligently, almost every night for the last 2 weeks to pull out the staples. as of right now, there are only a couple small areas left that need to be done before tuesday.

and this is where we are today:

and we're off to the races! the new cabinets will be partially installed on tuesday, with the cabinet fronts installed on thursday. the wait-it-out part will be hard for the granite countertops which will be templated probably on wednesday, with installation a week to two weeks later. its rather interesting to try to make some semblance of a meal with no sink. even more interesting is trying to wash the odd dishes in the bathroom sink. we're trying to use paper plates as much as we can, even though not eco-friendly at all for the time being.

it will all be worth it though! so looking forward to this part getting done. we will be putting in the hardwood at some point in the next month, the dust is making me crazy!

and if you've gotten this far, check out my new slideshow to the right - the cards i made for the canadian troops overseas are all there, 51 to date, and were delivered to corinne today when she stopped by on her way home to saskatoon. enjoy!

thanks for taking a peek, wish me luck!