Need your help with this new card

I have finished this new card but I am stuck with the sentiment. I do have owl sentiments ideas but none that really work with this card so here's where I need your help. When you see this card can you imagine it as a birthday card?





On the personal side we had a great time celebrating Rorys birthday yesterday, the family was over for a bbq, the weather was great and a good time was had by all. The only problem for the day, I forgot to buy candles, so Rory had to pretend to blow out his candles, it was quite funny. Rory had asked the kids if they would help him blow out the candles and they were right there ready to do it, took them a few seconds to realize there weren't any candles to blow out.

Today we purchased a large pool for the backyard. Rory is really, really saftey conscious so it took quite a bit of convincing to do so. I had found one with a cover that had a zipper lock to ensure the kids couldn't get into it when we weren't around. Well after 4 1/2 hours filling the pool with water we go and put the cover on only to discover that the zipper was broken, ugh!!!! So now I have two kids that don't know yet that their new pool won't last 1 day in our possession, what to do with all the water!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers!
p.s. I will be announcing the winner of the thank you card contest tomorrow night, good luck to all that entered!

Yeah a new card

I finally did it, finished a new card. It has been quite a while since I have been able to do this so you can imagine I had a great sense of accomplishment when it was done. I know its just a card but actually crossing a "to do" off the list felt great. So here it is, I would love your feedback on it.

I did make two cards but I haven't yet decided on the sentiment for the card.

Short post today because it is Rorys birthday today and I have his whole clan coming for the party so I have a lot to get done before 3. I don't think it will be a late party so if I can the plan is to finish the second card and work on a layout for each of the boys books.

Finally the blog giveaway ends tomorrow so if you haven't had a chance to enter be sure to do so :)

Here is the link to that post.

http://kriskroppin.blogspot.com/2009/05/blog-giveaway-10-mini-thank-you-cards.html

Designed an owl card today but......

ah, I finally got around to designing a card, cutting out the components and would you believe I am all out of glue!!!!

What a nut!I guess this means I get to make a trip to the scrapbook store :) I know I can get glue anywhere but Rory doesn't know that :) Just kidding, I need paper too.

I heard something crazy today and I haven't gotten around to verifying whether its true or not. I heard Archie is getting married to.....................VERONICA. As my 3 year old says with animation "WHAT THE?"

Anyway it's midnight here and I am pooped! Have a happy Thursday!

Cheers

New Job, Owls, and an end to ebay

Well not a total end to ebay. I will still be making my pre-made pages, custom pages, and cards but I have closed the store today. Until I can find the right suppliers and the time to dedicate to it I found it really wasn't worth the cost.

I started a new job today, I am a purchaser at a vitamin manufacturer, the location is awesome, 5 - 10 minutes from home, considering I used to commute an hour and 1/2 each way to work this is a huge improvement.
It definitely means more planning on my part, but I am a list maker so this should work out well for me. I think it is going to be a great new beginning for me, I haven't worked outside the home in quite a while so getting back in the routine may prove a challenge, but I am up for it!!!

Owls - tonight I started some new owl cards that will be listed on both Etsy and ebay, I will post pics as soon as I have them.

Finally don't forget to check out the giveaway I am having here http://kriskroppin.blogspot.com/2009/05/blog-giveaway-10-mini-thank-you-cards.html

Cheers

Blog Giveaway - 10 mini Thank you cards

This giveaway will be for 10 mini Thank you cards. Each card will measure 2x2 when folded and will be a variety of different designs.

There are 2 ways to enter this giveaway:

1. Leave a comment telling me your favorite two color combinations

2. Become a follower of the blog.

I will draw the winner of this giveaway on the evening of May 31st.

Thanks in advance to everyone that enters....good luck!

What a wonderful time we had

This past Tuesday morning we left for the Oregon Coast. Rory, the kids, my mother-in-law, and myself packed up the van and away we went.

It took quite a bit longer than we had planned to get there but the drive was absolutely beautiful once we hit the coast. I did all the driving (9 hours) and found myself driving in pockets of monsoon like rain but all in all the drive was great. We (Ror and I) were blessed with kids that are great travellers, I remember back to my childhood and I don't think I could have handled that drive as a kid but they don't complain, I think they like the adventure.

We arrived in Lincoln City and the pictures began. In 2 days we took 117 pictures, I am so thankful for digital cameras!

Here are a few of the pics from our first night there.

The first night was quite funny, we were staying in an old house, it was built in 1929 and I am not sure if some of the old residents weren't still around! The house had 5 doors (not sure why) but because Brendan is still in a wandering phase we decided to split up the sleeping arrangements to be sure Brendan didn't walk out one of the doors. So here I am in the back room with both kids in bed and I can hear doors banging in the main room. I get up to check it out and nobody I am staying with is awake, but the banging persisted. Then the smoke alarm starts to beep, not like it was warning us of a fire but just a beep here and a beep there. In the morning I chalked this all up to the wind and an old battery in the fire alarm until.......the t.v. turned itself on. We were all sitting in the living room just watching the water out the large windows when all of a sudden the t.v. turned on, can't explain that one :)

After a walk on the beach in the morning we took off for the outlet malls. Some really good bargains to be had but in all honestly I can't shop with the boys so I didn't even try. It's Rorys birthday next week so I wanted him to find some clothes, he hates to spend money on himself so I was happy that he found some cargo shorts, track pants, and shirts, he got them all for the price of the tracks pants here at home, awesome.

This log reminded us of a turtle!

We then went for lunch at an Oregon coast favorite called Mos. Really good food but I think the balloon hats they made for the boys (Rory included) was the highlight of lunch.

Next we went back to the beach to fly a kite, dig in the sand, blast off a rocket (Christmas present of Trevors that was tons of fun to do on a large beach as it blasts off 50 feet), and just enjoy beach time. The wind was so strong, the sand was blowing, and little Brendan could sometimes barely walk but he loved it.

Cooked dinner at the house, got the kids ready for bed and then enjoyed the finale of American Idol as the surf pounded in the back. (Yeah Kris!!!!!!)

It was an incredible few days and we all can't wait to get back, the next time we go we decided it will definitely be for at least a week.

Since we arrived home very late on Thursday we decided to keep Trevor home for one last day off school. Night of the Museum 2 opened on Friday and Trevor has been waiting for about a year since we heard it was coming out, they filmed it here in town so we knew about it coming out pretty early. Trevor loved the Night of the Museum and was literally counting down the days till it came out. So we decided to trick him, I can't imagine that we have many years left to be able to do this. We didn't tell him where we were going just that we were going out for a drive, we live a block from the theatres so he quickly realized where we were going but then we told him that movies don't start till the evening and that we were only going there to have lunch at Burger King, he actually bought it until we went to get the popcorn, then he figured it out.

It was a great movie! It was really weird though, about 1/2 hour into the movie all of a sudden everything was upside down and the talking was all weird, I thought I was losing my mind because nobody was saying anything, then the theatre manager came in and said that in 10 years he has never seen this, they put the movie on the reel backwards, they could not fix it though so they moved us to the Imax screen and we all received free vouchers, totally worked for me!!!!!

So now life returns to normal, I will be making my lists and getting organized for next week. I start my new job on Monday so our schedules will definitely be changing.

Have a great weekend

Cheers.

Mini family vacation - Oregon Coast

I have finally convinced Rory to join us on a family vacation. Since his car accident the anxiety he feels has stopped him from joining us, however lately Trevor has really been making some comments that this has not gone unnoticed on his part.

It made me sad to think of all the experiences Rory is missing out on and the experiences the boys are missing with their Dad. So we are going to take a mini step and go away for 3 days to the Oregon Coast. We did this back in 2006 when Trevor was just 4 and to this day he has always asked to go back. He has asked for this more than Disneyland or any other vacation he has been on.

We are renting a house right on the coast, the deal was unbelievable as they are still charging winter rates, so even though it is just the 4 of us, and Rorys Mom, we are renting a house that sleeps 10. Here is the house

From what I understand there are 22 steps down to the beach, they are steep so it may not work for the boys and Rorys Mom but the idea of being able to walk out the back door onto the beach has me so excited!

We are leaving on Tuesday morning (avoiding the long weekend rush) and will return on Friday. The plan is to take our time getting there and enjoying the coast along the way. It is a 7 hour drive but with all the stops I plan who know when we will arrive :)

Should be tons a fun, just hope the weather cooperates! So I probably won't be posting until I return as I have quite a bit to get done this weekend before we go so until then...

Cheers :)

20 page custom scrapbook layouts

I currently have up for auction 20 page custom scrapbook layouts - the starting bid is just a low 0.99 cents. I am thinking this will be the last one I do until the fall as I plan to do some cards and non-custom layouts during the summer. I also need to get going on the boys books as they are really far behind!

Here is the link to the auction and and example of my work:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370200977147&_trkparms=tab%3DSelling

Cheers

Mothers Day & Christmas

I celebrated my first Mothers Day only days after Trevor was born. He was due weeks after Mothers Day but gave us a great surprise and came to play earlier than expected. I loved that I was able to celebrate that year and I have to say each year only gets better and better.


For the past couple of weeks Trev has been telling me that they have been working on a Mothers Day gift but he was really good and kept it a secret, he is very much my son and secrets are really hard for him so I was quite proud of this.


He was too excited though to wait until Sunday, so at 7:45 a.m. in bed on Saturday I was presented with an envelope, inside the envelope was what he had been working on for the past few weeks.

These are love coupons and there are 4 in total. The coupons include, helping wash the dishes, helping with dinner, making his bed, and my favorite, help me bake. This one is my favorite because I can't bake, I don't have the patience, so any help would be appreciated.

The next item I received was a booklet he had been working on which detailed all the things he loves about me. It was so sweet!

These handmade gifts are such a treasure, I love the work he put into them and I will surely keept them in a safe place to enjoy for years to come!

Christmas was part of my title. I know it is months away but I have a question, when do you start to get organized for Christmas? I have a number of handmade cards to list on Etsy as well as my boxed sets for ebay and I was a little late last year, so is it too early now to start listing them or should I still wait just a bit?

Cheers

p.s. My boys didn't do it, I was very sad to see the playoff run come to an end but after thinking about it they did ok considering they were not even expected to make the playoffs.

Inspiration Needed

I was successful with the spring clean up of older layouts, the reason I had done this blow out was to start some new layouts for this spring and summer. Unfortunately at this time I cannot find the inspiration needed to get started. I am working on some custom layouts and those are going great but for pre-made layouts, mmmmm, just not working.
Maybe I should just start small and work on some new cards, and then get into the bigger layouts.
One thing for sure is I do have to start working on the boys layouts, I am soooooo behind with their books, I have to find the box where all the scrap ready photos are.
What do you do when the inspiration is lacking, any advice would be helpful :)

Cheers

Go Canucks Go!!!!!

Happy Mothers Day!!

Well today has been a different Mothers Day for sure. It has been great just different as we were a split up family. Rory and Brendan are both down with the flu, it has not been fun for them, poor guys, so they were not able to attend the activities we had planned for the day.

The original plan was to have a picnic and then go to Minter Gardens, this is a beautiful spot about 1 1/2 hours from here. Once we determined that we all weren't going the plan was changed to go to Granville Island in Vancouver. My Mom, Trevor and I spent the day down there where we enjoyed fish n chips, wonderful pasteries and some shopping. Trevor was even the star attraction in a magic trick, it was so cute.

















Granville Island is such a fun place to visit, just honestly don't go if you are hungry, I wanted some of everything, well maybe not everything as some things were just a little weird!! Check out the tower of strawberries in the photo above, mmmmmmmmmmm.

In a couple hours we are off to dinner, Japanese. It has been quite a while since I have gone out for Japanese and Trevor is so excited to sit in his own private room. He has already had sushi (it was one of their lunch selections this year at school) and he wasn't a fan the first time but I am going to see if he will try it again, you never know, as I tell him all the time, tastes can change!

I hope everyone has had as wonderful a Mothers Day as I have, my only wish is that half the clan wasn't sick :(

Oh, on a different note, my optimism is weaning just a bit with my boys, they lost last night to go down in the series, I am hoping they can get it together for Monday.

Cheers!

An Awesome Find

A couple weeks ago Trevors school had a contest for earth day. The contest was for the entire week and it was to see which classroom could have the least garbage. Every day after recess and lunch their garbage was collected and put in the contest garbage bag. So you can imagine packing a lunch and snack was a little tricky through that week.

I am not a processed food lover anyway but in all honesty when packing the lunch an individually wrapped nutri-grain bar is an easier solution.

This week though Trevor wanted no garbage (this included orange peels which I think takes it the extreme I mean really can't you compost orange peels, lol) so the sandwich went the way of the thermos filled with soup, the nutri-grain bar was unwrapped and placed into a tupperware container and the juice box was no more, replaced by the plastic sippy cup (non-toddler version of course).

I get the point of this exercise but honestly it was more a displacement of garbage because instead of it ending up at the school it ended up in my garbage.

Now I wish I had found the following product that I came across last night weeks before this contest because it would have made packing the lunch a little easier. This is my first year with Trevor in full time class so it is the first year of the packed lunch but I can't imagine over the course of his school years just how many plastic sandwich bags will find their way into the landfill. But no more, check this product out,

www.cottontopquilts.etsy.com

It is a reusable sandwich bag, the description is as follows:

Reusable Sandwich Pouch

-made from designer 100% cotton exterior, lined with nylon , a water and stain resistant fabric

-pouch measure 6.50x7.00, a generous velcro closure is used for added freshness to your sandwich

- a convenient 3 inch strap makes it easy for those little hands or adult fingers to carry pouch

-no seams are exposed , no crumbs getting caught in the threads-pouch can be wiped out with a damp cloth, or machine wash warm and line dry

I haven't purchase one yet but I will, just can't decide which one I like the best, here are a few more examples of these bags. What a great way to cut down on garbage and look stylish doing so!!

On a different note it looks like my power of optimism may be working out for me earlier than I thought it would, more details to follow.

Finally my boys (the Canucks) play again tonight, they were winning last game with just over 2 minutes to go and then lost in overtime, I am optimistic ;) that the result will be better tonight

Optimism

Last night I found myself watching the Michael J Fox special Adventures of an Incurable Optimist and I have to say I was very inspired.

Michael is a hometown boy who I am very proud of and I sat down last night thinking it would be too hard to watch (it just makes me so sad) but the message he was telling last night was so powerful for me that I honestly saw past his disease and really felt I heard the message.

Optimism I believe is truly a life changing attitude. Now I believe in faith as well but if you have faith aren't you essentially a true optimist.

With all that has been going on in my life over the last few years I may have faltered in my true optimistic beliefs but I am getting that back. I am optimistic I will find a job, I can build my business to be the best it can be, I will be the best Mom and Wife and Friend, and I will live my life with a smile on my face.

Do you have a story of a true optimist?, if so lets hear it. I think with all going on in the world today bright stories and examples of others optimism may just be the push we all need to get going in the right direction.

My boys didn't get it done last night but.......with an optimistic smile on my face she says....they will!!!!!!!

Cheers

I need my bed back please

Meet Brendan

he is the reason I wake up every morning with a sore back and not feeling as rested as I can. You see we are going through the "I will not sleep in my own bed" phase.

Every night Brendan wakes up around 1 a.m. and finds his way downstairs (if I am still up, usually the case) or into our room if we are in bed. He refuses to go back to his bed.

I have done the supernanny thing, waiting him out and continuing to put him back into his bed, yeah that doesn't work, he is the most determined kid I have ever seen and even as a baby he could go hours and hours without giving in.

Brendan loves arts and crafts so I have bribed him with paint, stickers, glitter glue etc, yep that doesn't work either.

So if anyone out there has any ideas I would greatly appreciate it, I just keep thinking it's a good thing Rory and I decided on only 2 kids because at this rate #3 would never arrive, lol.

Oh and big game night tonight. The Canucks can go up 3 - 1, so fingers, toes, and nose crossed. Go Canucks Go!!!

Getting off the train

So as the title states I am getting off the train. What am I talking about, what train? Have you ever gone through a moment of your life where you felt you were on a train going nowhere?? Well this has been me for a while.

It is time to catch up with all that has been going on since my last post, this should make the above make a little more sense.

Since selling our house my main focus has been to find a job, as I mentioned in an earlier post I had found a job and it was so horrible that I could not stay on. Since it was my first interview in years (I have been running a daycare and working on my scrapbooking business during the last two years) and I nailed it I didn't think finding another job would be an issue. Well......that was two months ago now, I have been on numerous interviews and even quite a few second and third interviews but I have not received the call that I have been waiting for.

Without a proper focus (of course I focus on my family) the days just seem to go on and on and on and I felt like I was going nowhere fast hence the train metaphor. This changes now, I have decided after great thought to shift the focus of my days to building my scrapbooking business. I will still go on interviews of course, I need a job, but I think that if I can shift the focus than maybe something will happen when I least expect it.

As a family we have had a lot of fun though. We have had a few dinner parties to introduce our friends and family to the new digs. Easter of course, the Easter Bunny was very generous, took a weekend away to Seattle with the boys (Rory stayed home but my Mom joined us),

and celebrated Trevors 7th birthday. Here are some pics of the great day, actually I should say days. We had a family party on the Saturday and the kids party on Sunday.

So now we will focus on next weekend. We are taking Rory's Mum out to lunch on Saturday and then will be spending the day as a family with my Mom on Sunday. Rory asked Trevor what he wanted to get for me for Mothers Day (I really want nothing but great quality time with the family) and his first answer was "mmmm I don't know" and then says "I know....makeup", well if you know me you would know that I am not much of a girlie girl and makeup really isn't me, but I think that it is so cute that he would think this is a great Mom gift.

So now that I am planning to get back to posting everyday, part of the shifting the focus deal, be aware that there will probably be a lot of hockey talk. My boys (the Canucks) are doing great in the second round of the playoffs against the Blackhawks.

I was so excited to get tickets to the game this past Saturday (really hard ticket to get here in Vancouver) but even on the way to the game I was thinking maybe I shouldn't go. I am not a very superstitious person but when it comes to hockey I am. So considering I haven't been to a winning game all season and since they not only lost but lost bad I thought maybe I should stay away.

Well yep, should have stayed away. They lost and they lost bad! They have played 7 games thus far this post season and have lost ONE, thinking I will just watch on my t.v. from now on :)

So finally I have been doing some spring cleaning with my scrapbook layouts and have listed quite a few layouts on ebay for a low starting price of just 0.99 cents. As well I have a 20 page custom scrapbook page auction which is still at a really inviting price.

Check it out here

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=370197112163&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT

Cheers,

talk to you tomorrow