Animal Lover

Being the animal lover that I am, I have instilled this love in each of my children.  They know that animals are meant to be treated with kindness, love and respect.  Clayton loves our cat Asia more than we will ever know.  They have a bond that is special.  Asia greets Clayton when he gets home from school, and sees him off every morning.  We got Asia from the SPCA when she was approximately two years old.  She was abused and in a cage for 4 months before we adopted her.  She has many issues, but she loves and adores us and we love and adore her back.  Here is a layout that I wanted to share that is from the heart.  This truly depicts the love that my son has for his cat.

A Masculine Layout

I always find that masculine layouts can be a challenge.  Instead of flowers, I thought I would make little "fans" for embellishments and spray some chipboard stars with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist.  It's also fun to use border punches and I'm all for dimension and texture.  This layout was of my youngest son as we were celebrating his 11th birthday.  He loves sparklers combined with birthday candles for his cake.

Hot Chocolate Anyone?

Fancy Pants Designs has new papers that I adore.  The Hot Chocolate Collection is perfect for winter themes.  I love photography, but mostly nature and landscapes.  Winter is among us and it's a good time to get out the camera and see beauty in snow.

I just love this color combination.  Have a wonderful day!

A Day At The Beach Is Sweet

I usually scrapbook what is on my mind for that day.  Today it was somewhere warm and beachy as we are in the midst of a long, cold winter up here in Alberta, Canada.  This one was so much fun to create.  It is last year's winter vacation to Punta Cana with my youngest son and my husband.  Oh I want to go back there someday soon.

Nikki Sivils Blog

I was informed this morning that I will be on Nikki Sivil's blog as a feature in February called "Showcase On You".  I was very flattered to say the least!  Here is the layout that will be featured. It is one on my niece and nephew:

I really love all her cute collections.  Here is the link to her blog for a giveaway.
 http://nikkisdoghouse.blogspot.com/

Nikki will be giving away her new Sugar Cookie Collection.

Loving The Colors

I had to do another layout with Echo Park's Wintertime Collection.  I just can't get enough of these colors.  This one is of my son Clayton.  He has been sick quite often lately.  He isn't a meat eater so he is on iron supplements.

Layout: Brrrr Wintertime

Layout: Brrrr Wintertime

I have a new account on Scrapbook.com.

http://www.scrapbook.com/gallery/image/layout/3084693.htmlwww.scrapbook.com/gallery/image/layout/3084693.html

I'm So Happy!

My gallery of all my layouts is on Two Peas In A Bucket.  I posted a layout called "Brrrr Wintertime" yesterday and it got top 3 views and top 3 bookmarked for the day.  What an honor!  Here is the layout:

On a Roll

I'm on a roll with the scrapbooking lately.  These are some more layouts I did this weekend.

Kelsi - My Daughter's Bridesmaid

 My nephews Reid & Blake

My niece Laine & Dylan

Flowers On A Winter Day

Flowers are such a nice way to bring a little happiness to my day.  Rick quite often brings home flowers when he is coming home from his trip and my parents brought these tulips for me to cheer me up as I am housebound with my walking cast and not able to drive.

Tulips from my parents

Flowers from Rick

Getting In The Groove

It's been ages since I've had a little private scrapbooking retreat.  It is the perfect opportunity to scrapbook now that I can't drive or go anywhere.  I don't have to make any excuses to sit down and scrapbook.  I like that!  Today I wanted to do a girly layout so I created a layout for my daughter's wedding album.  This one is of my daughter-in-law Lori, who was a bridesmaid in my daughter's wedding last year.  Isn't she lovely? I love her big brown eyes.

Fighting The Laundry

Laundry never goes away for very long.  It is a vicious circle.  I saw this video this morning and had to share it:

Break A Leg......

No actually it's break a foot.  I am recovering at home after a fall this week at my local grocery store.  I broke a bone and tore a ligament in my foot.  Luckily they have these wonderful boot casts that are named an Aircast.

It is so great because I don't have to walk around with crutches as it is a walking cast.  I can't drive yet, but hopefully soon.

One thing I'm sure of is now is that I'm forced to take it easy so I scrapbooked a layout today.  It's good to use up some papers in my stash.  This one is a page with "Victoria Street", a Nikki Sivils paper collection.

Let's hope I never have a fire in my home because there is a lot of paper!  Paper is my weakness.  There are such pretty colors and patterns now that it is hard to not buy lots of paper.  Right now I am liking October Afternoon.  Their "Modern Homemaker" collection is so fun and nostalgic of when my mother was a young homemaker.

 Now I am also a homemaker but still  love the retro feel of this collection.  Now I just have to get the creative mojo to use this collection.

A Week Of Cooking

I have really enjoyed cooking on this extremely cold week.  My goal this year is to try to cook healthy and eat healthy.  Besides my scrapbooking addiction, I love to cook, bake and especially eat.  Unfortunately, I have to try to keep my weight under control.

This week I have launched a new group on Facebook named The Healthy Recipe Challenge.  I thought it would be a fun way to exchange healthy recipes among my Facebook friends.  The fun part is I can search for a healthy recipe, cook and then photograph and scrapbook the dish or recipe.  Here are some of the recipes I have cooked and photographed this week.  I haven't scrapbooked any recipes yet:

Lemon Chicken Stir Fry

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal

Asian Meatballs With Hot And Sour Chili Sauce

Crockpot Fruit

Cranberry Gingerbread Muffin

Soup Is On

I love trying new recipes and one that I tried today was Easy Beef and Barley Soup.  A website that I discovered last week www.eatingwell.com has fabulous recipes.  I was sitting in the dentist's office and saw this magazine so browsed through it and decided to check out the website.  Wow!  It's like Christmas for recipes!  This is a photo I took before digging in:

I Love Texture And Dimension...

Scrapbooking to me is getting inky and messy and having fun with it.  This layout I used some Technique Tuesday Tiles to give some dimension.  I painted them and dry brushed a little white paint over the blue tile to look snowy.  Blue and red go well together for winter layouts and I wanted to use these photos that I took in Fort McMurray on Boxing Day week.  It was fun to use some felt embellishments that I had in my stash and also some snowflake ribbon and jewel brads and a transparency for part of my title.  I love layers and dimension!

Trying To Capture The "Beauty" In Winter

We have been having a blizzard here the last few days and cabin fever is starting to settle in.  I have been inspired to photograph and scrapbook some "winter" pages and try to see the beauty in winter instead of the inconvenience.  It definitely isn't fun to drive in, but it's fun to scrapbook.  Thankfully Clayton has a snow day and I don't have to drive anywhere today.

I have a new appreciation for winter and I love photographing it's beauty.  When I go to an art gallery, I tend to sway towards the winter scenes.  It is God's art of putting a blanket on everything.

Many scrapbookers only do their craft in the cold months.  I try to do it year round but must admit the cold months I seem to be more inspired to sit down and create.

This is my first layout of 2011.  Polar bears scream winter and I love them.  That is why I have chosen this little guy to be the focal point of my layout.

Well I am on to another one.  It is nice not to justify scrapbooking and it's a perfect day to have a nice licorice root tea and sit down and create.  Have a wonderful day!

Healthy Recipe Challenge

Just came up with an idea that I think will be a fun way to try healthy recipes to keep the weight loss journey fun and interesting.  The challenge is to try one new healthy recipe a week.  It doesn't matter if it is a tried and true family recipe, a recipe clipped from a newspaper or magazine, or one from the internet.  Anyone want to try the challenge with me?  It would be a fun, creative way to exchange recipes.  The fun part is that it would be using our creative juices in many ways.  First the recipe, cooking the recipe and making your own twists on the recipe if desired.  Then photographing the recipe to get practice with our cameras and then eating it of course.  You can rate the recipe if you wish and say if it's a keeper or not.  Then if you want to get really creative, a person could scrapbook the recipes in either a layout, mini album or book.  Sound like fun?   Here are the ones I have posted for the first two weeks of January 2011.

 Eating Well Lemon Chicken Stir Fry

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/menus/lemon_chicken_stir_fry_500_calorie_menu

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/apple-cinnamon-oatmeal.html

I am following the new Points Plus Program through Weight Watchers and I calculate the nutritional values for each recipe that I eat.  You don't have to follow the program, but please make sure the nutritional values are included in your recipe.  Also please post the recipe or link it to your blog or Facebook account so that we can see the recipe.

It sounds like a lot of work, but I think once we get going it will be fun.  Maybe we can start a little photography group and scrapbooking group too.  We will have fun!

Encouraging Words

As I start on the getting healthy journey, I wanted to share this as it is a daily reading that I subscribe to from The Brave Girls Club.  It is so inspirational!


Dear Wonderful Girl,

Making progress is amazing! Making great progress for many days, weeks or months in a row is a fabulous feeling,
and sometimes we think that we can go forever without making big mistakes and falling down.

Remember, sweet friend, that a big part of the progress is the mistakes that we make -- the times that we fall down --
the stuff we sometimes call failing.

If you were going along great and then you messed up, or something came along and messed you up, don't you dare even
think about quitting! All you've got to do is pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start over again tomorrow. This is a
part of life that is going to happen over and over again; it does NOT mean you are a failure, it does NOT mean that you are
never going to get there, it does NOT mean that you deserved it. It just means that you are a living and breathing human
being and that you are completely normal!!!

It is going to be ok, lovely, it really is. Tomorrow is a new day. You get to start over. And if you mess up again, there
will be another new day right after it. Just do your best.

You are so loved.
xoxo

Ten Things I Want To Do In 2011

Here is a list of things I want to do in 2011:

1.  Nurture my friendships
2.  Take care of my health
3.  Earn my photography diploma
4.  Volunteer my time to make a difference in someone's life.
5.  Relearn how to knit
6.  Participate in a 365 program where I take one photo every day for 365 days
7.  Travel somewhere where I have never been before
8.  Organize my home
9.  Try a new recipe every week
10. Scrapbook at least once a week

I am not a strong believer in new year's resolutions, but I do love goal setting.  Today in my Weight Watcher's Tracker the tip for the day was:  "Self knowledge is the beginning of self improvement." - Spanish Proverb

My Book Of Awesome

There is a book that I have heard about named "The Book Of Awesome".  It talks about looking at all the little things in life that make it special.  Some people would say they are trivial thngs, but it teaches to not take the small things for granted.

Today I tried to look at life with a new optimism.  There aren't enough hours in a day and it seems like I want to pack so much into a day as life can be so exciting!  There are so many little things I can appreciate.  So many things that make a day special.  Sure there is our families and friends, but there are also things like books and hobbies and trying a new recipe.  I rarely ever get bored because I think of all the possibilities.

I need to embrace living one day at a time and baby steps in so many areas of daily living.  Patience is something that can be learned.

I am going to do a facelift on my blog, once I learn how to do some new techniques.  It is so therapeutic to type away my thoughts on a computer.  I also want to scrapbook and take pictures with my camera  to express myself.   This is going to be the year of optimism and expression.