Let's Capture These Sketches Team Introductions

The new sketch team has been revealed over at Let's Capture These Sketches.  I am very excited to be on the team and looking forward to meeting some new scrappy friends as well as create.  Here is a little introduction of all of us here.

I hope you will join us and have some fun!

My Layout Was A Gallery Gem This Week!

My layout was one of the Gallery Gems over at Scrapbook Challenges this week.  You can see all the layouts that were chosen here  by Cathy Sanders.  Thanks Cathy, that was really sweet of you!

Scrapbook Challenges Sketch #301

Another sketch is revealed at Scrapbook Challenges and it's another good one.  We all take our turn designing the sketches and they are all so unique and fresh.

I chose to do a layout on my son's school year.  Today was his last final exam and he will be finished grade 7!  What?  Time sure does fly by!  Now it's time for summer break.

Clayton You Rock

I love doing masculine pages. The two photos on the left are from the beginning of grade 7 and the last one was taken in May.  I recall mentioning to Clayton last September that by the end of this school year he will probably be my height.  I am 5 feet 6 inches tall and I would say that he is now about 5 feet 4 inches tall.  He takes a size 10 1/2 men's shoe so he is going to be big.  The place that I seem to be at the most is the grocery store as he is eating a lot now.

I hope you enjoy the sketches.

Single Page Sketch #301

Double Page Sketch #301

You can always play along and upload your creation in the forum thread and in our gallery for all of us to see.  We love seeing what everyone creates.

Thanks for stopping by !

Exciting News!

I just was informed that I made the sketch design team over at Let's Capture These Sketches for the July to October 2012 term and I am very excited to be a part of the new team.  Here are all the ladies:

Alison Krogsgaard

Aurelie Cormier

Chantal Anderson

Erin Morehouse

Genie Smith

Guylaine Seyer

Isabelle Doucette

Jaclyn Rench

Jocelyne Roy

Jody Rogers

Kelly Carroll

Lee-Anne Thornton

Leila Cassimira

Melissa Williams

Michelle Gallant

Monique Bourgeois

Nicole Nowosad

Rosemary Nunn

Sherri Funk

Shirley Tait

Stephanie Eaken

Susan McFarlane 

Let's Capture Our Memories and Let's Capture These Sketches have lots of inspiration and I'm sure you will be inspired by all the ladies.  Come check it out.
Have a great day!

Twisted Sketches Farewell

Today Anam Stubbington is saying farewell to three years of her contribution of layout sketches and card sketches on her website Twisted Sketches.  She is an amazing woman and artist.  It has been nothing but a privilege to be part of of her layout design team for the past year.

In honour of this event, the layout and card design teams got together and created layouts and cards with the twist "thanks" anyhow and anyway.  I wish her nothing but the best in her future endeavours.

Here is my layout that I created of my awesome husband who works so hard for his family and I am so thankful for him.  He is the most patient man I know.

Thanks For Being You

Thanks so much Anam for everything!  I loved working with you and the team for the past year and thanks for all the awesome sketches that you are sharing with the world for us all to be creative with and enjoy.

Thanks to all of you that read my blog for dropping by.  If you want to continue enjoying Anam's sketches, she has provided a link to download the past three years of layout sketches here as well the card sketches here.   Enjoy and be inspired!

Have a great Saturday!

Get Creative With Circles

Happy Friday!   Over at Scrapbook Challenges it was my turn to share a challenge so my challenge was to create a layout with circles.  Anyhow and anyway.  You can get as creative as you like. The sky is the limit!  Some suggestions to get you started are to use your circle punches, doilies, buttons, bling, stitching, stencils, masks, buttons, flowers, ribbon, scraps of paper, confetti, sequins, paint etc.

I created this simple layout of my daughter on her wedding day.

Dream Big

In this layout I used a piece of embossed white card stock to give the layout texture.  I then got busy with my scalloped punch and circle punches in different sizes and punched some circles out of scrap paper.  I then went into my stash and found some buttons, jewels, pearls, flowers, a doily, some round letter stickers and a pocket watch embellishment.  Easy peasy!

Come play along with us at Scrapbook Challenges and join in the fun.  We would love to have you join our forum and upload your creation to the June Wildcard thread in the forum and our gallery. Hybrid, digital and traditional scrapbookers are all welcome and it doesn't matter where you are from because we are from all over the world and it's such a friendly place.

Graduation Layout

Today over at Twisted Sketches is the reveal of Sketch #156.  The twist on the sketch is "graduation"  anyhow and anyway.

I chose to do a layout of my nephew Reid who is graduating this week from high school.

Reid's Grade 12 Graduation

Wow!  It just seems like yesterday I went and saw him when he was a newborn coming home from the hospital.  All the best to you Reid!

You can see the sketch here.

It is definitely that time of year.  My daughter will be the next one in August when she is finished her nursing program so I'm sure I'll be scrapbooking those photos.

Have a great day!

Scrapbook Challenges Sketch #300

Another wonderful sketch revealed today over at Scrapbook Challenges.  This is one of my favourite sketches so far.  It was designed by fellow design team member Lauri.

Sketch #300 Single Page Sketch

Sketch #300 Double Page Sketch

I chose to use the single page sketch and came up with this layout of my awesome husband and I on his birthday in May.  We are working on our thirteenth wedding anniversary in September.

Twelve Amazing Years Together

Why don't you give these sketches a try and join us on the forums at Scrapbook Challenges.

Have a great week!

Twisted Sketches Sketch #155

Today's sketch over at Twisted Sketches is about celebrating Twisted Sketches third year anniversary.

Anam Stubbington has done a great job and I tip my hat to her as she has put so much of herself into her passion and contributed so much to the scrapbooking industry.  She is so talented and I am very flattered that she asked me to design layouts for her Twisted Sketches blog.  This is my second term designing for Twisted Sketches and it was also my first design team that I have had the opportunity to participate on.  I'll always be grateful to her giving me the chance to explore my creativity further and to do what I love to do and that is to inspire and create.  Just because.

On this layout, I chose to do a layout for Father's Day that is coming up this Sunday, June 17.  My husband and youngest son and I were celebrating my husband's birthday last month so I thought it would be great to create a Father's Day layout for my better half.  I like to take a photo of them every year as my son grows and changes so much every year.  This night was such a fun, happy night.  We laughed and laughed until we had stomach aches.

Father and Son

I used the Echo Park "Times and Seasons" collection and the twist was "3"  so I used the 1 2 3 mini banner on my layout.

Thanks for stopping by and check out Anam's awesome sketch.

Have a great day!

Freeze Pops

Freeze Pops scream summer and I remember when my two older children were young, I would make homemade pops for them every summer.  I was all about saving money and with the price of them in the grocery store, I thought I would make my own.  They were fun to make.  Recently, I thought I would make some for my youngest son and he loves them.  It's fun to experiment and the sky is the limit.

Pinterest was to the rescue again this week and Shirley Temple Freeze Pops sounded so yummy and it reminded me of when I was a child and my family would go out for family dinners on birthdays and I  would have a Shirley Temple and my brothers would have a Roy Rogers.  Yum!  Jo-Anna, from A Pretty Life In The Suburbs shared this recipe on her blog so it inspired me to make them.   I have to be honest, I enjoyed the freeze pops even more.  I tweaked them and put about 3/4 Diet 7Up, one tablespoon of orange juice, and one 1 teaspoon of grenadine for each pop and them popped a maraschino cherry in each and froze them.

Grenadine, Maraschino Cherries, Orange Juice and Diet 7Up

Ready for the fridge

Check out the tea towel I found at Crate and Barrel 

I chose to use Diet 7Up because grenadine is a syrup and I didn't want to add more sugar.

My oldest son and my daughter-in-law gave me a gift card from Crate and Barrel, which is one of my favourite stores, so I bought these freeze pop containers, lots of kitchen gadgets and a book named Perfect Pops The 50 Best Classic and Cool Treats.  It was so much fun!

Perfect Pops by Charity Ferreira

Next time,  I think I'll try some Pina Colada Pops for the grown ups (you can make these with or without rum)  or some Mexican Chocolate Pops.  Summer is sweet!

Monday, Monday...

That means another sketch is up at Scrapbook Challenges.  As a matter of fact, Sketch #299 is up and posted and I love the sketch.

and the two page layout sketch:

and this is what I came up with:

Sign up with Scrapbook Challenges and join the fun!  We have a new sketch every Monday and also several themed challenges throughout the month as well as special events and our forums.  Come play along and link it up here and in the gallery here.

Have a great day!

Mmmm Dessert Of The Week

Lemon Cheesecake In My Pyrex Cups

I have always been a fan of sweets and desserts.  Give me a slice of pie, or a gooey chocolate chip cookie any day over a bag of potato chips and I'm in heaven.

Reality is that I have to watch what I eat more than ever before to keep the health and waistline in check so I limit my desserts to once a week and then I make it one to savour.

Anything lemon, whether it's pie, bread or cake has always been one of my favourites and when I came across this recipe by My Baking Addiction on Pinterest, I just had to make it. 

Costco has a nice size bag of lemons that I purchased as I like to use lemons for many different reasons such as cooking, baking, in my glass of water, squeezing lemon on fish and vegetables,  and freshening up my garburator and counters.  It doesn't break the bank buying them in bulk if it's something that I use a lot of.  If I buy a single lemon at the local grocery store, it costs about one dollar each and I can get a 5 pound bag of lemons at Costco for around $5.99!  

I don't have the cute little jars, but I found my 6 Pyrex cups worked just fine.  I cut the calories a bit by adding Cool Whip Light on top and also using Philadelphia Light Cream Cheese.  Raspberries are also in season and I had some mint leaves from a Watermelon Feta Salad recipe that I am going to try.  

The lemon curd is quite sweet, so I cut back on the sugar by two tablespoons and it was still plenty sweet for my liking.

Mix Graham Crumbs And Press Down The Graham Cracker Crumbs in Pyrex Cups

Put Pressed Down Crumbs In Water Bath On Baking Sheet

Mix The Sugar And Lemon Rind Well

Ready To Bake

Top Cooled Cheesecake With Lemon Curd

Serve With A Dollop Of Cool Whip Light Or Real Whipped Cream

Yum!

It is really difficult to have just one.  Enjoy!

New "Do"

I love my hairstylist Stacey.  She is such a cool girl and I totally trust her so I asked her if she thought it was a good idea to give me a new haircut with bangs.  It's been probably 20 or so years since I have wore bangs and because I have a nasty cowlick, I didn't know if it would be a good idea.  She went ahead and cut them and we both liked them.  She told me to "train" my bangs by blowdrying my bangs forward and eventually my hair should fall that way.  Here's hoping she's right.  It was time for a change and I want to enjoy the fabulous fifties.  Have a great day!

Twisted Sketches Sketch #154

Today over at Twisted Sketches it is the layout reveal of sketch #154.  Here is my take on the sketch:

Buried Alive

I love this photo as my son was having fun at the beach when his dad buried him in sand.  This layout came together quickly.  I love when that happens as it doesn't happen to me often that I can create a layout in less than an hour.  The entire collection is from "About A Boy" from Echo Park, which has such nice bright colours and fun stickers.

I hope you enjoy this layout and play along with the sketch here.

Have a great day!

Scrapbook Challenges Sketch #298

Today's sketches over at Scrapbook Challenges are posted and with this particular layout, I was in a bit of  a creative funk so I don't know if I really like how this layout came together or not.

In May, we always celebrate my husband's birthday and also Mother's Day.  Some years they happen to be on the same day so we sometimes combine the two and celebrate both.  This year we went for a nice dinner and had a fabulous time laughing and just being together as a little family.  I know I digress so here are the sketches:

Sketch #298

Sketch #298-2

Come play along and upload to this link and in the gallery.  Thanks for stopping by!

Roller Coaster Ride With My Health

The past three months have been a roller coaster ride for me.  I have had issues with my kidneys since I was about 5 months of age and recently was having more issues so my family doctor wanted to investigate further.  She referred me to a urologist and I went through some extensive tests for three months.   Nobody likes the "c" word and it totally turned my world upside down and inside out. 

Health to me is so important.  I always maintain that if a person doesn't have their health, they have nothing.  If a person is sick, nothing else really matters.  A person can have all the money in the world and it doesn't matter.

Since February of this year, and before I had this health scare,  I have been on a mission to get healthier so I am going to Weight Watchers and trying to eat healthier and get more active.  My doctor also goes to Weight Watchers and I love that she practices what she preaches.  She inspires me and motivates me.

In the past three months I have lost 20 pounds and already feel that I have more energy.  It isn't the first time I have been on a weight loss mission.  It is my third time doing this program and I truly believe losing weight is hard work, but maintaining the weight loss is even more difficult.  There are no quick fixes and it is very time consuming looking up nutritional information on every product I buy and tracking my daily points and going to meetings, trying to be more active, and try new healthy recipes, but in the bigger scope of things,  I know that it will be worth it.  It doesn't guarantee that I will fix my kidney issues, but it will give me a better quality of life.  

There are many obstacles with my weight loss journey.  I am on medications that make the journey more difficult, but not impossible.  My husband is also on this journey with me and he is doing fabulous.  He has lost 28 pounds so far and of course males lose faster than females and they get more points to eat daily too.  No, it isn't fair, but it is what it is and I'm so glad he wants to go on this journey with me.  My youngest son is twelve and I want to set an example for him and also be healthy for him and my other children who are 25 and 27 years old and married.  If grandchildren come along, I want to be able to have the energy to really have fun with them and play with them.  It will be worth it.  I am worth it.  My family is worth it.  

This journey has been interesting and I am looking forward to scrapbooking about it.  Scrapbooking is my therapy and also my way to capture the memories of the good times and the not so good times.  I really do  love the journey.