Senseless tragedy

This is the most serious post I have written. It expresses a large dose of anger that almost borders on rage. If you read this you may feel that I am selfish, but please know that I just need a place to vent and this happens to be it.

On our way out Boxing Day shopping around lunch time we saw a window blow out of an apartment and smoke start pouring out. Immediately my husband knew what to do, he shouted at me to call 911, then he jumped out of the car and ran straight in to the building to bang on doors to get them up and out. It seemed no one was in the apartment that was on fire. But all the other tenants in the building had been ignoring the smoke alarm assuming it was a false alarm. IT WAS NOT. The fire department arrived and did their magic and said that the apartment was empty. Thank god no one was there. The apartment was gutted, nothing was left. What upset me was that 5 minutes after the fire department got there a car pulled up and a young couple (maybe 20) got out and were visibly upset. It was their apartment. Guess what the girl had in her hands.... 2 bags of frozen french fries. Immediately it answered all my questions. But listening to what she said to the fire chief made me so angry. They had put a pot of grease on the stove to heat up and then realized they had no fries. They decided to leave the grease on the stove to heat up while they BOTH went to the store. That way it would be ready to go when they got home. WTF WTF WTF??????? I felt bad that they lost everything, and in that moment I needed to ignore my anger and so I offered my help. I found out their family all lived far away and they had no one close by, so I offered to let them stay at my hotel. I get an employee discount and told them I would pay for it until they knew what they were going to do. I offered them my home to go warm up and make phone calls. I offered them lunch. I really wanted to do what I could. Even if it was just these little things. Now that a few days have passed I am just plain angry and I need to express that. I know they were young but let's face it, this was avoidable by using common sense. My husband risked his life to go into that building, and all the lives of the other tenants were in danger, all because they did something so STUPID. It shakes me to the core to know that I could have lost Chris that day. I am proud that he did what he did, he may have saved lives, by putting his own in danger. But none of it should have happened in the first place. I am happy that this is something they will remember forever (as horrible as it is to say). They need to have this as a constant reminder to NEVER do something like that again. I drove by there today and saw the windows are now all boarded up and the waste bin outside is over flowing with their possessions, all blackened beyond recognition.

People, please give a quick thought to your own actions regarding fire safety. Please refrain from any activity that could potentially cause a fire in your home. Remember that it really doesn't take long. The fire dept estimated that it took 7 minute for this entire apartment to be lost.

Christmas update

Hello everyone.

First I would like to say that I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and lots of quality time with those you love. I have enjoyed this time more because of you all. Reading your blogs about your traditions and how you celebrate has given me so many ideas for next year.

Second I would like to thank you all for your kind words regarding my sons crafts. His gifts to us were amazing and he felt self conscious about giving us home made items even though he is 9 now. I explained that I will always love anything he gives me, and that the things he made were better than great. To prove this I posted the pics and he receive a ton of amazing compliments. He now feels proud of what he did and his ego and spirit are lifted. THANK YOU ALL!!!!

Third, my Christmas was very hectic, which is why I haven't blogged since Christmas Eve. I have worked straight through and I work tonight as well. So trying to juggle Christmas and work had been tough. Try working an 8 hour day on Christmas... I was deeply saddened to spend the day at work away from my guys. When I got home I got the biggest hug ever from Austin. It more than made up for it.

Fourth, Something tragic happened on Boxing Day but it warrants it's own post so please take the time to read my next one. It is very important.

Fifth, We are going home to Toronto for New Year's. I work tonight so we will be leaving early tomorrow morning. I can't tell you how much I miss my family, especially my little sister Shannon. I can not wait to see them. I may not get a chance to blog while we are away, but will be updating as soon as we are home.

My crafty kid's gifts to me, and Christmas Eve Eve

Hi everyone! Happy Christmas Eve! I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season and spending time with family and friend. Last night my best friend Julie and hubby John stopped by to exchange gifts and have a visit. We always have a nice time with them, and last night was no different. They gave me a a beautiful snowflake hairpin that matches perfectly with my snowflake drop necklace, an amazing key charm it honours my Irish heritage with green stones and Irish good luck charms. I think that will look great on my scrap tote as a zipper pull. A 2 pce dip keeper for entertaining. I LOVE this idea, no more separated dip at my parties! I while back I saw these really easy to use hair rollers and I commented that they were really neat, so she picked them up for me! I was totally spoiled. Lucky me. They also had fantastic gifts for Chris and Austin too!

Now on to the gifts Austin made me! I am thrilled with them. I was so impressed with what he made this year, and I wanted to share them with you too!

This one was a clear glass ball that he squirted red and green paint into and have it a bit of a shake to get this marble effect. This picture does not so it any justice, it looks gorgeous on our tree.

This one is the gingerbread man with loads of personality! Isn't he funky looking. I love that he is holding a candy cane. (Is it just me or just he look like he could have come out of South Park?

Hard to see in this picture but this marshmallow man has a big jingle bell for a body. The head is also not a real marshmallow so we can keep it for years. He is decked out in a pipe cleaner and pom pom earmuffs, and a fabulous little scarf. So sweet!

This guy is similar to the guy above but he does not hang on the tree he sits on my shelf. Love his little feet that hold him upright.

All these fantastic gifts came to me wrapped up in this amazing reindeer gift bag that he made. It was the best gift of the year, even though technically I haven't opened many yet. I LOVE receiving homemade gifts. They are my favorites every year. But Austin's seem to be my top pick. (Of course!)

Thanks Austin, you ROCK! As always you spoiled me and Dad.

Christmas Dinner is over...

Well, the big dinner is over at my house. It went off without a hitch! So golden brown and crispy on the outside. I hated to let Chris carve it! You're probably wondering why 2 days early... Well unfortunately in my line of work there is no closing, so we are open all the time. I work 3:00-11:00pm Christmas Eve, Christmas Day AND Boxing Day. Hmmm, not so nice but I have a huge chunk of time off around New Years so we will be going home then. Today was my only day to do a Turkey Dinner. My Friend Julie and her hubby are popping over tonight to exchange gifts so that will be fun. Austin has not been feeling well (the flu this time) so he ate very little but still raved that we did a good job. Such a good boy.





My tree looks so freaking amazing with all the gifts under it now compared to a "bare bottom" (pardon the pun). Have a little look:

Desperately seeking snaps!

Basic Grey's Magnetic Snaps:

Have you seen these?

Are they new?

Am I not up with the trends?

Why on earth can I not find them here in Canada?

All of these questions need to be answered! But seriously these are so freaking amazing. I love them! I found out about these just yesterday and have been everywhere looking for them. Nope... no one here has them. I am going home to Toronto for New Year's so I hope to have a bit of time to go hunting there. Rest assured when I do find them I will provide feedback to you all. I will write a review of the product. Before I can do that I must find them first. I am now on a mission, my scrappy friends. Go here to see a demo of these amazing little accessories!

Have you used them already? I wanna see your pictures and hear what you have to say about them. Drop me a line to let me know. If you are like me and have never heard of them before now, please let me know. (Maybe that way I won't feel so bad!)

Yay for Basic Grey! My hats off to you fine folks for such a great idea, you are always reinventing the wheel for all of us scrapbookers!

Update

Okay this has been a long week full of strange happenings. First of all thanks to every one who has been faithfully reading my blog for such a long time. I love that you all leave such wonderful comments. You all inspire me to come up with new projects. For all you lurkers (yup, I know you're out there) feel free to add your 2 cents every once in a while. In the new year I will be doing a great contest so let me know you're out there!

Friday night was fantastic. My best friend Julie threw a girls night/Christmas party. It was a Chinese X-mas/White Elephant/Dirty Santa (everyone has a different name for it) party. It involves everyone bringing a gift of a set dollar amount wrapping it really well, numbers are drawn and you then take turns choosing gifts. The twist is that #2 can steal from #1 and #3 can steal from #2 AND #1. ultimately the best number to draw is the last because then you can steal from anyone. I drew #2, but was thrilled with my choice. I got a HUGE bath set. I was so proud because the gift I bought was stolen 7 times before landing in the hands of it's owner. I had brought Christmas themed things. Oven mitts, tea towels, pot holders, 2 tree ornaments, massive hand painted wine glasses (I use them for a floating candle), and a big Christmas platter. By the end of the night everyone had gone home except the 3 of us who had grown up together, myself Debbie and Julie. We were reminiscing and enjoying the spiked beverages until around 4am. (Soooo baaaad, but soooo fun.)

Last night was my work Christmas party and I sat with most of the older couples, Chris did not attend with me because we had no sitter for Austin. The husband of one of the ladies I work with looked at my cleavage (lots of it) and said to me well I sure don't mind sitting across from those.... I mean you... All while staring at my chest. Then he commented that I should have rubbed sparkles on them to draw more attention. PIG. I had a few other more polite compliments like "you look so great". I thought that was funny, and since I am not a tiny girl it reminds me that even though I am a married mom with extra lbs I can still look attractive! I left that party pretty early though. It's not the same without Chris, he and I have a great time together.

Still looking for bad party stories. If you haven't already, tell me about yours!

Our Tree & another project

Not the greatest picture by any means but you get the idea. Everyone is posting tree pics so I figured I would follow the crowd and post mine too. Plus you can kind of see one of my projects on the shelf behind the tree.

You can see them well when clicking on the picture and making them large but the jars were just plain ol' jars with a jelly type air freshener inside. Once they evaporated I cleaned them out. Placed alpha stickers to forrm words (like family, warmth, caring, loving etc.) After I stuck on the letters I painted the jars and added some ribbon around the top. Inside is just a bit of sand and a tea-light. Pretty easy. I'll have to take a better pic of them with less lighting so you can see the words through the paint.

Hope you enjoyed this project, it was fun and really easy to do. Using the letters under the paint was awesome. It didn't matter what colour I used so I used left over stickers that were remnants from a very well used set. I always hate throwing them out, so this was a good use for them. At night they look amazing, very warm and cozy looking.

Oh no, not as planned.

Hi everyone. As promised I am posting a couple of pics of my latest project. An altered binder to contain Martha's 50 things everyone should know. I love the colour choice of the paper. Perfect for the intended recipient. The problem I have? It looks boring. Definitely something is missing. Maybe some doodling (I am so scared to try this). Anyone have a suggestion to give it that something special? I have attached a pic of the spine and cover.

Thanks for any advice, I am just so disappointed with this one.


Coleen
XOXOXO

Christmas party story and POLL

So this weekend was really busy, we had Chris's X-mas party for work on Saturday night. It was at a lovely hotel, and the dinner was succulent. Here is the time line:

1.) Cocktails: 5:00

2.) Plated 3 course dinner: 6:30

3.) Entertainment provided by the drunk people: immediately following dinner.

4.) I start to feel icky (have a bad chest cold) so I head up to our room for the night: 10:00pm.

5.) Husbands coworkers notice I am gone and speculate I must be pregnant since I wasn't boozing it up & wasn't feeling well: 10:30 (can't a person stick with non alcoholic punch and head to bed early without being prego?)

Sounded great right up until #3 didn't it. Well this was the first time I attended a party where the boss gave the only dateless employee a plastic date. Hmmm, are you following here? Yes, I mean a blow up doll. She was pretty little like maybe 4' tall. Not really attractive by blow up doll standards, but she was the life of the party. No one brought a camera... Except me. Now here is the horrible part. I was all set to get picture of Chris and all dressed to the 9's and my camera made a beeping sound... You know the "sorry loser your batteries are dead" kind of beeping. Only I knew I had charged them. So what could it be. I checked everything and then I opened the memory card slot and see it's empty. Yes that's right folks, I left my card in my printer when uploading the last batch of photos. So no pic of the lovely plastic lady. I could have got Chris a raise if I played my cards right on that one... Oh well there's always next year.

I have a special project on the go right now should be done today. I will post pics as soon as I am done?

POLL:
I told you about this weird Christmas party now please tell me your interesting party stories. You all must have some that are unique and I wanna hear them. Come on lurkers, I know you're out there too, now's the time to join in the fun... It will be worth your time!

Coleen
XOXOXO

I've been tagged!

Ok, so I have never been tagged before (thanks Tammie) so here goes:

A – Attatched or Available: Very very attatched to hubby Chris
B - Best Friend: Julie & Shannon
C - Cake or Pie: both (Greman Chocolate & Apple Pie)
D - Drink of choice: On a night out Vanilla Vodka and Cranberry Juice.
E - Essential Item(s) you use everyday: Computer, car & Martha Stewart (ok, she’s not and item but she is one of my daily essentials.)
F - Favorite color: Pink and chocolate brown
G - Gummy Bears or worms: bears but only the clear ones.
H - Hometown: Mississauga (pronounced )
I - Indulgence: Cheesecake, why? Do you have some?
J - January or February: January- Christmas is over and life settles back to normal.
K - Kids & Names: Only 1 so far- Austin (he is 9)
L - Life is Incomplete Without? Family and Friends.
M - Marriage Date: Nov 6th
N - Number of Siblings: 1 Sister- Shannon
O - Oranges or Apples: Oh my darlin’ clemintine!
P - Phobias or Fears: Phobia- hmm don’t think I have any. Fears- I am afraid of way too many things to list.
Q - Fave Quote: My family is like fudge- really sweet but sometimes nutty.
R - Reason to Smile: Life. Family & Friends (inlcuding my blog friends)
S – Season: Fall- so beautiful!!!
T - Tag 3 people: The people I wanted to tag have already been tagged. Maybe next time
U - Unknown Fact about Me: had a breast reduction, have fertility troubles
V - Vegetable You Don't Like: Lima Beans, who’s with me?
W - Worst Habit: nail biting and talking too much, running my life with a series of lists.
X - Xrays: Chest, knee, skull
Y - Your Fave Food: meatloaf & mashed potatos (soo comforting)
Z - Zodiac Sign: Cancer- Keywords to describe a Cancer: gentle, conservative, feeling, nurturing, defensive, contemplative.

Another Little Project

Here is a mini album I was working on for my Mom. Just a few quick pics of it. In total I think there are around 16 pages. I had a ton of fun making this one. I kept it simple as far as the layouts of the pages and the colour scheme was pretty basic. best of all it is purse size so she can show of her cute grandson from anywhere! All in I I love the way it turned out. Notice on the cover one of Heidi Swapp's fabulous chipboard letter! I love them.

Just wanted to share that real quick before I wrap it all up for Christmas.

Have a scraptastic day,

Coleen

XOXOXO

*EDITED* Oh so yummy!

*Edited original post to add picture now that Blogger is functioning again.*

I found the sweetest tote ever! It is a buttery looking faux leather, and comes in green black and yes PINK! I totally love it. I was all excited about it (since I need a new tote.) but I knew I shouldn't get my hopes up. It is not sold in Canada. I first found it online at Costco. So of course I skipped right over to Costco.ca . Not there, so I did a bit of research and can't find it here at all. Anyway. Maybe Santa will think I am such a good wife/mother/chauffeur/chef/scrap goddess/decorator/maid/laundry doer/grocery shopper... (grasping at straws here...) Well you get the idea. Here's crossing my fingers it makes it to Canada 'cause I am head over heals in love with this bag. And without further ado here it is in all it glorious pinkness (wait is that even a word??)

TA DA!!!!

Sorry.. Blogger had prevented me from attaching the photo earlier. Baaad Blogger.... I guess I should ask Santa for a Typepad account.

Thanks for looking!

Coleen
XOXOXO

Family Photos

We had our family photos done a while back. Although I did receive a few e-mails asking how they turned out, I never did share them so here are a few. Let me know which one you like best and why. I am really stuck on deciding on which one is my absolute favorite. Click and make 'em big so you can see them really well.

The day was freezing and rainy. We were all shivering, even the photographer- Jenna who was a trooper. It was tough for us to really get comfortable under the circumstances but she did a great job with what she had to work with. Next we will do some winter ones in the snow!

Thanks for looking,

Coleen

XOXOXO

My most recent project

Well, yesterday I made a trip to Michael's for adhesive. Somehow I managed to run out. (Shameful I know....) This has never happened to me before, I always have a backup. OK so now that I made my confession, I'll tell you what I was up to yesterday. I made some little Christmas gifts. Every year my son does a bunch of little things for family and friends. This year we made cute little jars of scented bath salts.






This is the before shot of the plain old jar. They were quite inexpensive and came in a 3 pack so I bought a couple of them. Kinda cute on their own but pretty plain.

I added some really pretty green "Gardenia" scented bath salts affixed a 2 layer label which reads: "Gardenia Bath Salts- add a small amount to a warm bath for a total body experience" I painted a line of Elmer's glue around the label and sprinkled on some ultra fine gold/crystal glitter to give it a shimmer, then tied on a pretty shimmery green bow. But the beauty was I bought a couple of bags of the salts. The other is lavender so the other jars have a purple scheme

This is the bag I made after watching a spot on Martha Stewart. I adapted it to my own liking but the idea was the same. For anyone who watched the show on Friday (I think). You would have seen that segment. I used a piece of cardstock to form a box bottom-giving it strength, 12x12 patterned paper for the bag and coordinating paper for the tag. I bought a gift tag stamp that says To and From attached that and tied a pretty coordinating bow with a nice gold edge.

So that is what I did with my time. My next project: Homemade Christmas crackers. I have bought all the supplies now I just have to assemble them. I'll post pics of them when I am done.

Coleen

XOXOXO

I love Christmas

OK, there are so many great ideas I have seen for Christmas this year, so I thought I would share a couple that I am doing. These ones are Martha's. (She is the queen, and despite everything that has happened to her still my idle.) Oh and for those of you who already have the 30 things everyone should know. Today they are adding 20 more things!!! I can't wait. It has to do with one of the gifts I am doing to I can't elaborate as a lot of people read my blog. I promise I will share it after the holidays.


This one is a great idea. I love the presentation and is easily adaptable. For example I am going to make a hot chocolate mix with the powder, marshmallows and a bit of shaved mint chocolate. Tie it all up nice with a silver spoon etc. Nice easy Christmas gift that won't break the bank. You can find the instructions here.




This is a wonderful idea as an early gift, something to give out at the beginning of the season to get people in the Christmas Spirit. They are little mulling sachets. The idea is that most people (or me at least) make homemade apple cider. But for some there is no time or they are just not kitchen friendly. This way it is really as easy as a bit of plain only store bought cider and one of these babies on the stove and you get fantastic cider every time. I haven't made them yet but they are on my schedule for Friday. Again you can find the instruction and recipe here.

If you have any ideas that are equally easy and gorgeous please let me know so I can post it for others to see!

I hope you all have your cards ready, they will need to be mailed soon. The ideal time to mail is a few weeks before Christmas so there is plenty of time for the recipient to enjoy their beauty.

Have a wonderful day!

Coleen

XOXO

Where have I been?

Well, obviously I have not been here, blogging daily... Life caught up with me finally. I have had a very busy few weeks. With Austin and all his recent homework (His Arctic habitat diorama among all the rest of it.) I quit my job after a rough couple of weeks. (I blogged about how inconsiderate they were when I was extremely ill.) I wasn't able to deal with the people who had treated me so badly so I talked about it with Chris and we both agreed it was the right time to move on. So I spent some time looking for a new job. I am so pleased to say that for the first time in my life I am now working a part time job. My time at work and home is perfectly balanced. I still wish I was a SAHM again but I think I would go crazy (umm, crazier I mean). Austin is not a little one anymore, he is very independent and so it's not necessary for me to be home. I do miss it though. I have also been getting ready for the upcoming holiday season.

Sorry for being AWOL, but I am back! Thanks to all of you who e-mailed me concerned about my disappearance, I promised it would be brief and so it was (kinda).

Coleen

Loosing out on Parent of the Year 2006...

This has been such a busy week. I have no idea where the time went. First it was Saturday and when I woke up this morning the calendar says Wednesday. Sheesh, I am wiped! OK so first thing is first. My son decided months ago he wanted to be Jason for Halloween, you know big murderous guy with a machete. All was fine with that, then a few weeks ago he decides he want to be a "PUNK" we go shopping for a costume, only to be told that a punk costume can not be bought it must be "put together" using key pieces of clothing, that my son already had. Great right! Well the down side is that they have weird hair. Not just a little different but "everyone will stare" different. He wanted the authentic look, meaning a Mohawk. He would not settle for a faux-hawk so we agreed that he could get a Mohawk if we saw an A+ on his geography test. (I kind of hoped he would not do it- guess I'm not parent of the year huh?) Well he did it so we took him on Saturday to get it done. HE gets to keep it until Saturday. ONE WEEK. A fantastic lady named Marnie did it. She actually seemed to enjoy it, and we all had a fun time. Here are a few of the shots from that day. Auntie Shanny loves it, Frammie HATES it and Grandma Anita loves it. No other feedback. People must be afraid to comment. I say I hate it, but secretly what I hate is the stereotype that my kid must be a bully/troubled boy because of the hair. He is the sweetest boy going and not a mean bone in his body, so the looks we get from people make me feel bad. People look at me with disdain... because if I let him have a Mohawk I must be a bad parent right?


Still looking sweet....... Not so sweet........














OMG what have I done?

And the winner is........

Due to Blogger having a ton of outages lately I was not able to post the winner yesterday. However I have randomly drawn a name out of a hat. I typed each persons "name" on a slip of paper and had my son pull one out. It was, of course, randomly selected from all of the people who offered suggestions.

The winner is:

COLLEEN E.

I had to change the prize because it was to large to ship safely so I went a different route. Should see they tell me in the next month or so. Let me know when you see it Colleen. So I don;t have to worry!

What a weekend/ Contest reminder

Ok, so I am a bad blogger. I haven't posted since Thursday. My weekend was great. Thursday night I spent the evening with my best friend Julie, hearing all about her recent trip to The Netherlands and France (OMG she went to Paris and didn't go to Louis Vuitton!) Saturday was again spent hangin out with Julie, on and off. We went out shopping for a bit then got together later in the evening to grab a quick bite together. The quick bite turned into a 3 hour bite. We were very pokey over dinner which was great, lots of time to chat. She treated me to dinner. (Thanks Julie!) Afterwards I suggested Starbucks. (no surprise there, I'm addicted to their Chai latte!) We of course had to have desert so we had Nanaimo bars! They were way too big and way to rich, this of course means the were WAY TO GOOD! I haven't spent that much time with Julie in ages. It was a great time, lots of catching up, reminiscing and hearty laughs!

My shopping was to buy coordinating clothes for me and the family. We went with orange green and Burgundy. Why you ask? Well my guys and I had an outdoor photo shoot with a local photographer, Jenna Terry, the weather turned out to be dreadful. It was rainy and windy. We managed to get through it though. Actually we had a blast. Despite the weather we had so much fun. She is a fairly new photographer but has some great ideas creatively. We enjoyed working with her and plan to do it again. Our only concern was that the weather may have impacted the pictures so we may have to reshoot. I really wanted the fall colours so here's hoping all is well. I'll post them once I have them.

Don't forget about my contest. It ends on October 27th 2006.

Click here to view details or to enter now!

As always, thanks for visiting my blog.

XOXOXOX

Coleen

CONTEST & How cute are these?

These are the cutes sets of boxes I have EVER seen, so funky! Dare I say they look a bit like CBX paper! Am I right? At the moment they are all empty. I didn't really have an urgent need for them, but I am an impulse shopper... eeek! I couldn't decide which I liked best so in the cart they all went! No problem I can buy more scrap goodies to put in them.. (How twisted is that logic? C'mon admit it you are the same way.) Anyway I feel like I am starting to bounce back and wanted to take the time to post something.

***I NEED YOUR HELP***

I have had these really cool 5x7, 1940's gangster shots of Austin (I so love them!). Here is the problem: I really want to scrap them. Every time I pull them out, I draw a complete blank. I need inspiration. Give me your ideas! If you submit a suggestion before Oct 27th your name will go into a draw for a surprise gift from yours truly. You could be the one with the inspiration I need.

As always thanks for stopping by!

XOXOXO

Halloween Cards

Okay, so I have been really sick lately. Went to doc's last night and found out I have the flu AND pnemonia (sp?). Can it be any worse? So I have been home for a few days now, work is not liking me now, that's okay though because I am not liking them all that much now either. Imagine telling them I am off because I have pnemonia and they say "oh so is there not any way you can make it in?" Uhmm, let me think about that one... No, no I can't. Austin is also home sick with me. Poor guy, feels nearly as bad as I do. The worst part is I felt guilty for being home, doing nothing so I decided to make a bit of use of my time. These Halloween cards were all my sick mind could come up with. Sorry not feeling very inspired now. I promise I'll come up with something better when I bounce back. Feel free to let me know what you think, good or bad...

As always, thanks for poping by my blog.

XOXOX

**NEW LAYOUT** Dirty Socks

So my best friend Julie has been gone for a couple weeks. Her and her hubby John went on a fabulous vacation to the Netherlands, they also skipped over to France for a quick stay in Paris. They went to see the Eiffel Tower. Wow! Is it just me or have there been a lot of people in France lately. Many people from the scrap world were there recently too. So John & Julie have just returned and I can't wait to see their pics. She is not a scrapper (Weird eh?) None of my family/friends are. Just me... Not that she isn't creative enough for it. She could be. I think...

A few weeks ago, I was telling her about this bunch of photos I have of Austin and his grubby socks, and how I want to do a layout of them titled "Dirty Socks". The problem was, I couldn't think of something cute to do. She casually pops out with "Why don't you do a laundry line with socks on it or something like that". I loved the idea and I told her so. So I shopped and surfed the net for one item that I had to have for this idea: mini clothes pegs. Well I finally found them and this page is the result of Julies brilliant idea, and my creativity.

Ladies and gents, Santa is dead.

So I am still feeling lousy. Bad cough and horrible congestion. Keeps me from sleeping. The good news is the snow melted away and with it went the "Christmas is coming stress".

Speaking of Christmas. It is with great sadness that I announce the death of Santa. His spirit will live on in millions of other gullible children around the world. My child however no longer believes in him and grilled me yesterday. He is 9 so I guess we had a pretty good run. 2 Christmas's ago he started questioning Santa. We answered all his question carefully and his belief lived on. Last year he said point blank. "Mom, I know you are Santa. I am not sure how exactly but I know you are." I laughed and said for him "not to be silly, how could I get all the gifts to a world of kids when I don't even leave home?" he pondered that for a sec and then said "yeah well I know you have something to do with it". I managed to keep it going again last year.

Last night while speaking of Christmas, Austin blurted out "there is no Santa, you guys do it all and pretend it's him". I was flabbergasted, it was such a direct statement I didn't know how to respond. I looked over at Chris and we shared a look that said: "it's time". I then gently told him the basic story of Santa, and explained to him that we pretend in order to keep the spirit of Santa alive. We also told him that knowing the truth comes with the great responsibility of NEVER EVER telling another child. He must always maintain that Santa is real so he doesn't ruin it for other kids. I hope we handled it well. But Santa is "dead" in our house and Christmas will never be the same. Is it crazy that it makes me cry?

Sickness, snow, stress. Oh dear...

I have been feeling very much under the weather the past couple days. Very sick indeed. It snowed here yesterday. Looked outside last night and saw all these HUGE beautiful snowflakes falling from the dark sky. It was so pretty. The flakes were all twinkley in the moonlight. Today it melted away. Thank Goodness!!! I know, the way I described it sounded just lovely, but to be honest snow makes me panic. Why you ask? Well, let me educate you on the subject: Snow=Christmas=Santa=Gifts=Shopping=Crowded Malls= Parking lot rage! Oh no I can't deal with all of this stress. I have to go back to bed... I'll try to post again later when I am in a better frame of mind.

My Scrap space

So in a previous post, I complained about not having enough space. I currently have this. Not a big space, infact not even room for all my paper. I store my paper elsewhere at the moment. This is just where I keep my supplies etc. I actually do scrap at the dining room table. Arrrggg. So here are some of the photos of my space. This is a photo of the sign I made for the area:

I love it, it says scrap happy. That's what I am! This one is of the 2 shelves:

This one is of the top of my cabinet:

You can see my 1st altered binder from the last post in that pic. I keep alpha stickers and stamps in the drawers. I keep all kinds of scrap goodies in nice boxes. It may seem strange but I keep my good pens in a very pretty vase my uncle bought me:

So there you have it folks, my tiny little scrap space. Small but cute. BTW: for anyone interested I got the cabinet as a gift from my mom. It's one of my favorite pieces of furniture.

Altered Binders:

A while ago I was reading one of my favorite blogs, and I saw this amazing idea: Altered Binders. You take a regular binder (you know the type with the plastic cover) and you strip it of the plastic and redo it using your own supplies/paper. So I thought I would give it a shot, I must admit Amy's steps were amazing and she included pictures for each step. I couldn't have done it without her fantastic direction. (Thanks Amy!) If you want to try it I suggest you follow her steps. It didn't take me all that long, less than an hour and I have this great new binder. It was my first attempt so it's not perfect but I love it none the less. I plan to do many more. To the left is what mine looks like, and this is my title in close up. I am using this binder for idea sheets and layout helpers etc. I can't wait to do another! Off to go buy binders!