The June Bug arrived!

For those of you not remotely familiar with scrapbooking, this is not a beetle of great dread who will eat your trees. No, I am referring to the new Basic Grey line of paper that many have been waiting for with great anticipation.

The Basic Grey June Bug arrived today along with a few other goodies.... too bad I have to work tomorrow.

New stuff is always so inspiring!

First let me say though that I think the recession in the US is far greater than I realized because I think BG fired their usual designers and hired someone on the cheap.

I am disappointed with this line. They have had so many incredible, timeless lines in the past but this one ....well I'll just say it doesn't tickle my fancy.

However! I am always up for a challenge and hey I can use red plaid (vintage plaid) along with cabana on a layout with the right pic. And this picture of Mark with the big old red wooden carriage wheel worked.

...and get this, I used eyelets! Remember them? They were so perfect with this. Took me a while to find my eyelet setter, but there they are and you know what? Placing eyelets on the dotted card stock was just too easy to line up perfectly!

Journalling reads....

You sure do take a good picture Mark!

One cool dude!

Handsome, nice guy, talented, kind, a good cook, gentle and a strong brave fire-fighter as well. How come some girl hasn't swooped you up?

I know, I know – you are waiting for the perfect wife... and that is a very good thing. I know she is out there and she will love the Lord like you do. Every day Dad and I pray for you and for your future wife, whomever she might be.

My plan is to attempt some of the more floral June Bug papers as soon as I can. More challenge!!! But I love a challenge.

Have you caught the June Bug yet?

I want to know what you think.

2002 layouts

I know you were expecting wedding photos but I chose to get the 2002 album out of the way, packaged up, gone from the scrapbook room, before I tackle uploading wedding photos.

Then I have to decide which ones to print and what size.... watching for those Blacks and Don's specials..... then the wedding scrapbook begins. Can I get it done by September when the grandbaby arrives? I think not - but perhaps well into it.

Here is the weekends efforts....

Thanksgiving 2002 - no guests... since our usual guests were off having Thanksgiving with their families and we have no extended family in Saskatchewan - but we still had all the fixin's!
I love this page - I like all the subtle stuff on it - the way the page picks up on the guitar - the music stamp on the journalling tag, the mesh with the black line - like the guitar. It just came together when the house was quiet except for the washing machine and dryer and I had a hot cup of decaf - ahhhh....love having time like this. I have been waiting all week for a morning like this.

There he is my son Paul - my guitar-man - like his Dad - and brother Mark come to think of it.

Coca Cola Crazy - only Paul could take the Pepsi challenge - tell the guys that one of them was just awful and the other fabulous knowing all along which was the Coke. Nasty boy!
Lots of Basic Grey on this page - so glad I stowed those leftover Coke papers.

Okay so as bad as these photos were I felt pretty good about the layouts... but this last one had horribly faded photos and there were abut 12 of this Christmas church event - and so few of my kids.. but I know the kids will want to remember this fun talent night. So here it is. I pulled out the Christmas stuff and gave it a shot.

A lot of cropping went on to make these fit. And the scanner cut off the bottom - it really does have a bottom border.

Four pages done... six more to go and I am finished 2002.

Easter 2002

These dark, out of focus, turquoise pictures from 2002 are starting to get to me. At this point I just want to finish the year off. I only have about 10 more pages to go and 2002 is all recorded and in the album. Thankful that Allison kept a great journal of all the things we did back then - YEAH to home schooling!

However, sometimes it is hard to come up with something I like with these old bad photos.

But it isn't about the photo quality, right? It is about recording the event .... and I think from 2001 until 2005 we had someone around our dining room table very Sunday after church - in fact I am sure we did. That is too much scrapbooking of food and I am going to have to pick and choose what gets into the albums.
This I can live with so in the album it goes.

The good news it the wedding photos arrived last night and oh my, oh my, oh my.... Melina did a FANTASTIC job and every minute outside of sleep and work is going to be spent on having fun with these. (and getting the 2002 album done so it is out of the way).

People, I am out of commission for anything other than scrapbooking, work, sleep and the gym for the next two months!

I will try to post some picks in the next 24 hrs.

I have to get them into Adobe Lightroom, organized and ready for blogging (sized).

But here is one for you today!

Another 2002 page

I decided that the weekend was not going to pass me by without getting at least one page done. And so, besides getting a whole bunch of laundry finished, 26 items ironed, guests for lunch after church this am (do Sammy and Allison count as guests?), a new banner made (you like?), I did get a page done.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a 12x12 scanner that didn't cut the bottoms off my pages?

The Basic Grey Wisteria has the perfect colors for this page and besides - time to use up the old stock in preparation for the arrival of the new Basic Grey - June Bug!!

Cat TV

I like this page. I like the simplicity of it; not cluttered, tells the story. 

I am almost ready to put the year 2002 into an album and that is good because very soon I will have many, many photos of a special wedding to scrapbook. 

And after the wedding album is done it is on to hundreds of baby pictures. (Big smile!)

Quote of the day from Steven Wright

"I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize"

Wild Alligator

I finally got my alligator photos on a page. I took these in South Carolina last fall. Last evening I just happened across the perfect paper while organizing the scrap book room and the page fell together. Wow - got two pages done yesterday...It feels like I haven't done a scrap book page in over a month what with wedding stuff and all.

Journalling reads....

I did not want to leave South Carolina without a photo of an alligator and the bigger and meaner the better. But after 6 days - no alligator. Then as we crossed the foot bridge at Middleton Plantation and I spotted him just yards away - a big 7 ft alligator. 

I quickly changed to my zoom lens and started clicking away. He didn't move...so I moved in closer.... and closer until David gave me the stern "that's far enough!!". Got him!

I read the journalling to David and he said "I still have nightmares about an alligator chasing after you!" ... "No, wait, that's ME chasing you hahaha" 

funny guy!

A wonderful Day

No, not another wedding. THIS day is wonderful because I am doing nothing!! Nada, zippo, ultimate laziness. I have NO responsibilities today - just a supper (Shake N Bake chicken) to prepare and some odds and ends to do - but it is a very relaxing day and I am loving it!

It started out with my sweetheart and me going to the gym for a fun workout together. We each do our own thing but now and then I distract him... (big smile) ... especially when he is lifting weights! hehe

Then we showered (no coed showers at World Gym  - darn!!) and off for coffee (and shared cinnamon bun) at our favorite spot - Intermission House. Picked up my new bike at Bruces on Central on the way home. I will post on that great purchase in a few days. We came home, puttered around, tidied the den and folded some laundry, made some cookies....and then the four guys all left to go to a movie. 

That left Allie and me at home. With Allie on the piano playing some lovely hymns, I decided what better opportunity than to scrapbook some pictures of my garden from June 2002. 

So I did. 

....and now I am going to indulge in an afternoon nap so I can stay up late and play Liars Dice, Origins and Mad Gab with all my kids tonight while we snack on fun goodies. 

Stay-at-home holidays with lots of food and plenty of board games really make for wonderful family time. 

Allison's and Harold's Birthday 2002

I have a cold - it is the last thing I need or have time for right now so I am laying low - as low as I get.....I took two hours out from house and wedding prep on Sunday aft to scrapbook. I needed to just close my mind from the to do lists and think creatively. I also did some sleeping in on Sunday- something I only do if I am sick! Sleep helps! So does Neo Citron!

Not that putting together all this wedding decor is not creative....but with scrapbooking I only have to please ME....so I can do what I want on a page. YEAH!!

Basic Grey "Bitter Sweet" line, BG chipboard letters, K&Co pink flowers because they didn't get put away from the last page, bling, pebbles (new ones in at JSI - bigger) Creative Cafe rub-ons, white gel pen and voila!

And then Harold's Birthday in 2002 - he turned 21!! This was a fun 2 page layout to do - just pulled out a bunch of stash along with the BG marrakech line and these fabulous Theresa Collins family chip board "charms" I have to get more of those. 

I have been skipping the gym - cause my lungs say "are you kidding???!!" 

But that gives me an hour in the wee hours of the morning when I am awake to get this page done too. 

This is Harold's Birthday 2008 - I finally used that great BZoo paper along with these really fun Fancy Pants chipboard shapes. We have a whole bunch of Fancy Pants paper at the store and these chipboard shapes go with most of them...and with the Bzoo line too!

As you can see, the sparklers loose their excitement over the years, but Mom still insists on a cake and a photo!

Now back to that to do list! Oh yeah..and work!

Allison's Birthday 2002

I have found myself, of late, describing my scrapbooking style as clean, uncluttered, simple.....

Then I did this two page spread. Not sure what happened but the paper and embellishments got away on me and I couldn't get stopped. But then this is a birthday and birthdays are loud and crazy and fun and a party!!!

Yes this is my daughters 13th birthday celebrated with the family and a few strangers at Fuddruckers. I remember it being rather fun if not embarressing for the poor girl.

This is the girl getting married in 17 days!

I used the new Basic Grey Lime Rickey line "Fruit Fizzy", Cherry Cola" and Hobokin" 

I also used the Basic Grey birthday chipboard from the cupcake line which is a perfect match for the lime rickey match and we happen to have about four more of these packages on sale right now at the store. 

For fun I added a strip of paper from the Bo bunny line "It's my Party" how appropriate! I threw on a few flowers from K & Co Citronella.  

And this is the confusion that ensued. But it captures the moment. 

Have a blessed day everyone and remember....You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth. Deut  8:17-18a (NIV)

more Bisous PDQ Shabby line

You know, the trouble with this line of paper is that both side are so gorgeous and I want to use them both. I hate to put the back side face down in the album. What a waste of beautiful paper.

I hear this often at the store and I have told numerous customers that "you just have to get over it".

I should take my own advice, but I am having trouble doing that this time. I love the other side of this paper. I may just have to get some and use it!!

OR figure out what will go next in the scrapbook and scrapbook the back - however I do dislike being limited to where I put my pages and this efficient method does that to me.

Isn't this just fun paper?? I just have so many ideas for it and I love the colors...so I am going to have to buy this again because right now this beautiful paper is on the back side of my recent two page layout. What a shame. Do any of you struggle with this??

This is the other side and what I started with....

I had eleven pictures to squeeze on to two pages so a lot of neat stuff was covered up. But c'est la vie ~ another 2002 summer afternoon up at Emerald lake eating too much food, sitting in the sun and water skiing is now in the archives.

The end result.... Friends, Food, Fun Emerald Lake 2002

2002 pages

FINALLY, I have scanned a few pages piling up on the desk here. Looks like they are all about Mark's year in Cadets. More memories preserved.

..love the look on Mark's face as Grandpa "inspects" his uniform. :)

Mark loved Cadets and did very well, winning the Hesterman Trophy his first and last year.

I had to do a little googling to get the right name of this Hercules. If you can click on the layout and read the journalling, the last bit reads....


And Mark, as a cadet, got to sit in the cockpit of this big guy on May 4, 2002.

Little did Mark know that in October, 2005 he would be sitting in the back of this big bird, in full military gear, on his way to Pakistan with the Canadian Armed Forces DART team to aid the victims of Pakistan’s worst earthquake.

Life is full of adventures. (his Mom feels every one of them!)

And now Mark is a firefighter. I am so proud of him and he is such a wonderful young man, in reality I have been so blessed even if he has chosen experiences that make my heart beat a little faster at times.

This is why we scrapbook!

So Pretty

Hey! I got a page done.

I was cleaning up the clutter in my office/den/scrapbooking room and I picked up this picture and had an idea after looking at some other pages. And it fell together in about 15 minutes.

Wish they were all like that...but this time I had an "I don't care if all the patterned paper doesn't go perfectly" attitude - These were the scraps I had, so I was using them. Besides, when you have pink and red in there somewhere - well anything goes after that.

I FINALLY found a use for these Chatterbox chipboard letters!

Pretty soon Allison and I will be full into wedding decoration/reception planning/invitation mode.
If you have any advice on economical but classy/beautiful decorations for church, reception, cake table, guest table....please do share your advice.
Their colors are aqua blue and soft lime green. We were thinking that black table cloths might be cool. We have out guest gifts decided on and they are very pretty and delicate.

Any ideas for centerpieces that look fabulous with only 1-2 flowers in them? Allison is kind of stuck on gerbera daisies

Hard to believe that pretty little girl in this layout is getting married!

Just Be YOU

I drove my sweetheart to the airport at 5 am this morning. Some of you were just going to bed...

He is off to Raleigh North Carolina and staying in the loveliest Inn. I am a tad jealous. I would be with him but I have to work.

So inconvenient!!

He will be in meetings all day every day for three days, but since he needs a car rental to get to the Inn, I could be off with my camera all day every day for three days and loving it!!
But I have to work. (do I sound a tad resentful?)

Well, no because that work will help pay for an upcoming get away for the two of us to a warm place. A warm place where I plan to take a 6 GB's worth of photographs. ...and then there is that upcoming wedding...

So at 5:30 am Sunday morning I am back home, alone, and he is on his way to the warm south.

He has a four hr stop over in Minneapolis. Now for most guys they would groan at this thought, but us ladies know that the Minneapolis airport has some of the finest and classiest women's clothing stores out there. I can EASILY spend my 4 hrs shopping. He took a book.

I came home from the airport, put on my decaf and then wandered into the den/office/scrapbook room. I spied this photo and just had some ideas thanks to some layouts I had loaded into my scrapbook ideas files a while ago.

I had great fun with the rub-ons and actually went a little crazy with them - some I have had for three years.
When I first came across this photo, I had picked up three new papers and I didn't use any of then. Just used a piece of leftover scraps. But hey..that is "scrap" booking right?

A few weeks ago I went through all my stuff and organized - including sorting all my scraps of paper by color. It is amazing how you can use the stuff up when you know you have it!!

That Just Be You rub on has to be over a year old.

Anyways, I had a whole bunch of fun (even at 6am on a Sunday morning) with a picture of Allison taken in....you got it, Feb 2002. I think we were up at Table Mtn skiing when this was taken.

I am at 31 pages for 2002.... and only about half way through the stack of photos!
And there is a wedding coming up!

Now, enough of the stash. The new Basic Grey is in at Just Scrap It and I plan to refurbish the stash with some "marrakech" and a few other pretties.

A Couple more pages.

Finished up a couple of pages I had laid out on the desk for a week or so.

Beautiful Duet - I just love these photos of Paul and Allie playing a duet together. Makes my heart real warm. The rub on in the lower rt corner reads.
"These are the MOMENTS I want to remember forever."

Love this musical paper too!

And then back to some pretty awful photos taken in a gym. Haven't we all experienced the terrible effects of the lighting in a gym? Add to that , our subjects are way too far away for the flash and , well you get these green pictures. Oh to have known way back then, what I know now, but that is the way it is. I scanned and converted most of the pictures to Black and White to get them all onto one page. Here ya go!

Got some pages done

Plugging along on 2002 - I now have 24 pages done from that year and I am only three months into the year.... oh dear this is going to take a while. I find it so hard to cut down. I could have done a single page on every one of these shots of Allison having dress-up time and swimming fun with her girlfriends. But alas, they all got squeezed into a two page spread.


The best part of these memories is that Allison kept her homeschooling journal while we were on this trip and I absolutely love her fun description of all the exciting things she did with her friends. There is no more meaningful journalling than that done at the moment of the event. I scanned her journals from her book and reprinted them on matching blue card stock.

This spread is celebrating my fathers 77th birthday while Allison and I visited Victoria in February of 2002. Dad is about to celebrate his 84th birthday next month!

My Mojo is starting to return

..well at least I did get two pages done from the spring of 2002 when Allison and I took a trip back to Langley to visit our girlfriends. Not sure if that means my mojo is back, but it is starting to return.

The first layout is Allison with her buddies and the second is of two of my very good friends.

For Allison's fun page I used a bunch of stuff from my stash. The girls did a variety of fun activities the weekend we visited. These photos were of their trip to the huge "Colossus" theater in Langley to see Snow Dogs.

This second layout of my friends was put together courtesy of Basic Grey


So easy - everything is from the granola line of Basic Grey.
I mean really - you don't even have to think.

Thanks for looking.

You are the Graduate

I realized last weekend that I have not done a scrapbook page since November 23rd! Do you believe it? Okay I did 34 Christmas cards a week ago, but no pages for over a month and so at this rate it will take me until 2010 to finish scrapbooking the year 2002 and that is moving backwards so I I put life on hold to get a page done!!

Pretty fast actually - paper, stickers - yup I used stickers, and some rub ons. I have kind of lost my mojo, so when I get it back I may add something else to the page.

You are the Graduate - Harold's graduation picture.

Girlfriend

This was a difficult page to do because it was all about a dear friend who died of cancer. It seems the past few pages have brought to mind challenges in my life (Harold's schooling) and sad events and losses. We often don't take pictures of these events but sometimes the pictures we do have remind us that we have come through some difficult times and we will come through more. But hey! I am woman!!

I prefer layouts about sweet babies or birthdays or fun events and especially traveling and the different places I have visited. But the realities of life is that we do go through hardships and losses and they hurt and they are part of life. I add this page and my memories about my dear friend because I miss her and I want to remember her and the fun times we had raising our children together. I am thankful that the good Lord has allowed me to see my children almost grown and Lord willing He will also allow me to see my grandchildren.

Not so for my friend Sharon. She was called home to the Savior she loves earlier then we wanted. But His timing is perfect. I don't fully understand this and all the hurts that resulted, but I trust Him completely and I know His will is perfect. We soldier on!

These photos are from Spring 2002 when I visited Sharon in Langley, B.C. The journalling was hard to do. I spent most of the afternoon writing, mulling it over, deleting, starting again and feeling sad.

I was also feeling really sick today too, so there was a nap in there as well. I haven't been sick in a very long time, and if any of you suffer from meniere's desease, you will know what my day was like. Haven't had an attack since that helicopter ride in Hawaii!! And I haven't been on any fun rides this week so I am not sure where this came from but it has improved with rest and drinking a gallon water. It was a quiet day despite the Grey Cup and so a good one to reflect and journal. But I digress.

This crate paper was perfect - from the 'lemon grass collection' and I am thinking I might just pick up some more for my stash - it is just nice paper not only to work with, but to look at. Some Bazzill flowers - which I am running out of, some bling from 'me and my BIG ideas' and a few prima. The bird in the top rt corner is heidi swapp.

If you want to read the journalling, double click on the page and it will get big enough for you to read.

Here it is..... another page from 2002.

Thanks for letting me share my day with you....
Blessings! He continues to provide and I give thanks!
Julie

Saskatoon Music Festival 2002

Hey another 2002 page. It wasn't my intention to scrapbook today (I am writing this on Sunday) because I have been working on my photos from South Carolina and finished up a table top book today with 141 of my favorite South Carolina photos in it. It ended up being 36 pages and the coup de gras? The cover is alligator skin - okay - not real but looks pretty darn cool!! There are alligator pictures in that book! Can't wait until it arrives. I used a free shipping coupon too. Yeah!!

But these photos on this page below were in the 2002 queue on my desk today, they were black, red and white and they were about music. And wouldn't you know it, I was working at JSI on Saturday and this fabulous paper had just come in from Creative Imaginations! It was about music so I bought one. I didn't realize until I got it home what a perfect match it was. I wasn't thinking about these pictures, but in cleaning up my desk, I pulled them out and looked at the new paper and wow. I added some Prima flowers and bling, ink and glossy effects on a chipboard note, some journalling and it was done. About 20 min - not including glossy effects drying time.

This is Allison and her good fellow home schooled friend Whitney. They played a rather difficult duet in the Spring Music Festival. Didn't place, but they did well. And don't they look so sweet.

I think it has been about 3 weeks since I have done a page...spent a lot of time on the two acrylic projects before I was away. So it felt good to get a page done today AND my South Carolina coffee book. If you want to see my coffee table book try this link. It doesn't show with the alligator cover though, but it will be there when it arrives. Click on the pages to enlarge them and read the words on the page.

Whew - what a creative day today (Sunday) .... AND I also posted my Governor's House post today too - took a while to edit and shrink all those photos for my blog. So that means I will hold off posting this page until Monday night... I don't want you to bypass the Governors House. :)

And the rest of the week is work, work, work...to pay the VISA, VISA, VISA! LOL

Spring 2002

When spring of 2002 arrived, our perennial garden in the front of the house was actually starting to look like it had real potential to be a show stopper. The tulips were first up and were beautiful. The Heliopsis came back double the thickness of the previous year and the snow drops were taking over the garden. That’s what happens when you get a free plant with “invasive” qualities. But no matter, the white blossoms contrasted the colorful tulips beautifully and I can always pull them out if they get out of hand. Things were mighty pretty the first of May, 2002!