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