A day in Disneyland on a whim!!

I received an e-mail about a seat sale that I just couldn't pass on. Seattle to Anaheim for $80 return, sign me up :)
So the plan is to take my Mom to Disney for just one day, both my sister are out of holidays so we are making a weekend out of it to surprise my Mom for her b-day. Leaving early on Saturday and home Sunday, phewf, I love to live in the moment and this is just an example of how I do it.

Cheers,
Kristine

Finally getting settled

November has but one more day and honestly I am not sure where this month has gone. We moved in our new house earlier this month and to date it still doesn't feel like home. I wonder how long it will take to get that feeling.

Participated in one craft fair this year and I am going to say it was a success because I made my table fee back and some profit, I did think that I would do better. It's kind of hard when we have our first snowfall warning of the season the weekend of the fair. We never get snow in November. It's actually kind of comical, the year before and the year after the Olympics are snowy, the year of the Olympics well not so much :)

Getting full swing into Christmas shopping, actually almost done, hooray!! Two weeks from today I will be cruising to the Caribbean and returning a couple days before Christmas so it's really now or never.

I have been busy crafting as well and have listed some new cupcake toppers in my Etsy shop. These are totally customizable, any color can be done.

Now that things have slowed down a bit I hope to be on here more, sorry for being such a poor blogger, sometimes life takes over.

New house and Disney, life has been busy!!

Well the vow to keep up with the blog doesn't seem to be happening.
I am going to cut myself some slack as it has been nuts around here for the last month.
In this past month I have signed up for a craft fair, being going crazy getting ready for it, bought a new HOUSE (yippee) that closes in less than a month and have been to Disneyland.
I hope to have pics of the trip and the new house soon but honestly blogging is going to have to take a back seat to packing and crafting!

Hope everyone is well.

Cheers

Halloween challenge card

I put together the following Halloween card based on a challenge at Stamping 411 - http://www.stamping411.blogspot.com/
I just fell in love with the cats :)

 Cheers

Brens first day of school

I honestly wish I could bottle up my youngests enthusiasm regarding school and keep it for a later date (like Trevs age since right now all I hear from him is how much he hates school. I know he doesn't mean it but thinks it's cool to say)
This morning Brendan came bouncing down the stairs singing "it's my first day of school, it's my first day of school", I thought he was going to burst with excitement.
Had a wonderful day (oh I should say hour) playing with play doh, wonder what's on the list for tomorrow.

I on other hand am very excited too. We told the kids yesterday that we are heading to Disneyland next month, we are off to see the mouse, I am super excited :) No singing from me though ;)

Cheers!

Quick card challenge

Well the weekend has come to an end and unfortunately I cannot say anything we had planned to do was completed but we were busy.

Yesterday we viewed a couple houses as we are now in search of our next home. It is a struggle because in the area we live there are not many new houses that come with any land and those houses that have some land (when I say land I don't mean acreage, just a backyard where the kids can kick a ball) need so much work, of course if we were willing to spend 800k+ we could find that but that's not in the cards unless we win the lottery :) Anyway these houses we looked at yesterday were beautiful inside but didn't have even enough space for a patio set so they are out, back to the drawing board.

We had planned to go apple picking as noted in my previous post but the rain changed those plans so we took a trip to Washington state to do some shopping, picked up the kids indoor shoes for school but not much more.
I did complete a challenge card tonight but honestly must get cracking to be ready for the craft fair season.
The challenge was for Crazy for Challenges and was based on the following color combo.

Here it is:

Happy Monday to all :)

Etsy apple feature

Hi all,
this weekend as long as the weather doesn't turn too bad the family is planning on doing some apple picking. I love to go out and show the kids where the apples come from and have them help pick them, this year I just have to remember to watch the signs and not pick apples from trees that aren't ready, I had a whole bag full before anybody said anything :)
So because I have apples on the brain I decided to do an Etsy feature dedicated to apples. Store links are below each picture so if you see something you like be sure to stop by the store.

http://www.themustardseed123.etsy.com/

http://www.sinami1.etsy.com/

http://www.mapleshadekids.etsy.com/

http://www.karenfabian.etsy.com/

http://www.cottontopquilts.etsy.com/

http://www.canadiancreationz.etsy.com/

http://www.adrienneaudrey.etsy.com/

I know technically it is still summer but with school and apple picking it sure feels as if Fall has indeed arrived.

Cheers

Long weekend + rain = crafting!

The decision of what to do outside today and last night was made for us easily, it is pouring today (actually started last night). So with no plans, which has been a rare thing these days, I was able to get quite a bit of crafting done. I am planning on doing some craft fairs this upcoming holiday season so I have to get a plan together and get cracking.

I was working on the following challenge card last night from ccmonthlychallenge.blogspot.com using the following sketch, below is my interpretation. I actually made a set of 4 that I plan to add to my craft fair inventory.

I have also started working on cupcake toppers for both my etsy shop and the craft fairs, I would love your input as this is a new venture for me.

Ok off to do more crafting before heading to my sisters for dinner, has to be an early night though as the fall routine officially starts tomorrow with the first day of school :)

Cheers

Card challenge & Niagara Falls

This has been a lazy weekend, making up for the crazy week we just had. We left early last Monday for Hamilton, ON. Rory had a doctors appointment so off we were on a 5 1/2 hour flight across the country.
Normally the time change doesn't affect me but I think leaving on Monday and coming home Wednesday did a real number on my system, quite honestly this is the first time since last weekend that I have felt alive.

We took a detour since we had an extra day to Niagara Falls. This place has been on my bucket list for quite some time so I am really happy to have seen it, it was also nice to be with just Rory, nothing against the kids but some adult time was really needed for both of us. We were both surprised by our reaction to the falls, they were simply magnificent but I think we both imagined them to be a lot taller.

Since being home nothing much has been accomplished with the exception of a lot of yawning but I have put together a few custom layouts and one card challenge. It is my sis's b-day tomorrow so we are heading out for dinner tonight, this is the card I made for her big day.

Cheers

Four leaf clover vs Friday the 13th

It was funny yesterday, I came home and found the entire troop hanging inside on a wonderful sunny day playing DS, Wii and the computer. After realizing that this was the itinerary for the entire day I turned off all electrical devices and ordered the boys outside. Of course I was hit with the "I have nothing to do!" whine from Trevor to which I responded, "Oh well, get some Vitamin D and figure something out.". He then tells me that he is going to search for a four leaf clover, I encourage this as I figure it will never happen but will keep him busy on a hunt for quite some time. Yep the best laid plans right, not more than two minutes later he comes up to me and asks, "is this a four leaf clover?", and guess what it was!!

I checked on-line to see the odds of acutally finding one and read that for every 10,000 3 leaf clovers you will find 1 4 leaf clover, I wonder how much further the odds go up if you are looking on Friday the 13th!!!

It was exciting but unfortunately a few minutes after the research of the odds I hear " I have nothing to do!", lol.

Planning the quick trip to Ontario on Monday so not a lot of scrapping/cardmaking going on, hopefully I get right back in the swing of it when we get back.

Cheers

Blog candy, mmmmmmmmmm

I was doing some blog surfing tonight and came across this blog, http://www.sassylilsketches.blogspot.com/ to find there was a wonderful blog candy post. So be sure to go take a look, some wonderful work to view!!!

Cheers

Happy Monday

Well thankfully the rain has come for a few days. In July we received a total of 1mm of rain and that has not helped the forest fire situation. Today after three days with on again off again drizzle they have lifted the health/smoke warning. As I said in the last post the air quality has been so bad many have been forced to stay indoors.

With the rain maybe my lawn with change from that lovely gold color to its natural green, probably not but here's hoping :)


I have finally taken the time to take pics of some projects I recently finished. They were originally for challenges but with the lack of computer they did not get posted as such.


I am working on some new challenges this week so hopefully I will be able to enter the challenges before the due dates....this is the plan.











Personal layout for Brendans Book


Cheers :)

Another birthday has come and gone

I have been absent for quite some time but this time I do have an excuse. My laptop screen cracked (not my fault but long story) and I have been without a computer for quite some time. We do have a home computer I could use but I never seem to have more than 5 minutes before the kids or dh are crying to get on, seriously what did we all do with out time before computers :)

I celebrated my birthday this past weekend (Friday acutally) and it was a great one. My Mom took me to see a local production of Glengarry Glen Ross starring Eric McCormack, it was a great play. The week before we had seen The Lion King, I have never left a play disappointed but this time I was, not sure if I was just expecting too much but I was not a fan.



We went for a nice dinner Friday in Queen Elizabeth Park, usually the views are outstanding, one of the tourist destinations, but on this day the smoke from the 400+ wildfires going on in B.C. left a haze leaving the view a little disappointing. I truly feel bad for the people with respitory problems because the air has been really bad.
Wonderful hubby purchased the Big Shot for my b-day present, I haven't really found he time yet to play with it but I can't wait.

Also while I was away from the blogging world we took in the fireworks (largest fireworks display in Canada), I wasn't going to take Brendan because I feared that the crowds would be too large (300,000+) to take both boys but I am glad I did, he had such a blast seeing it for the first time.

We were able to get all the kids school shopping done yesterday, crazy having to buy for both of them this year. Brendan is counting down the days to his first day of school!!

Finally I found out on Friday that Rory has too see a doctor in Hamilton, ON, NEXT WEEK. I have never heard of flying 5+ hours for a doctors visit on a weeks notice. We have to find a kennel for the dog but thankfully we were able to get Rorys sister in to watch the kids here, I have to go as well at the doctors request. One nice thing is that the way the flights came about we will have 1 full day to look around and Niagara Falls are only one hour away, this is a place that has been on my bucket list so for that I am excited.

Hope to have some of my craft projects loaded here tomorrow.

Oh and also if anyone knows what I would have done to have all my sidebar items at the bottom of my blog I would love your advice on how to fix it, it's driving me crazy ;)

Cheers,
Kristine

Ducks, Geese, Fish, Dogs and cards

We had such a wonderful weekend! I came home from work on Friday and just new that we needed to spend the weekend outside. Thought of camping but since you need to book campsites weeks if not months in advance that was out of the question. So what to do? I found myself on-line in search of someplace new that would be fun for the whole family but didn't cost an arm and a leg to get in. We found ourselves on Saturday morning at a bird sanctuary, wow what a fun place! There were ducks and geese everywhere, even some cranes. The kids each had a bag of seed and I felt like the pied piper with the ducks, they would just follow along, I am not sure why since there was seed everywhere. Great walking trails as well, we had a such a great time!

On Sunday we had Rorys brothers family over for a bbq and took off to a local park for another walk, again a great day out. It was too funny, our dog decided half way through the walk that she was done, plopped herself down and wouldn't move, well sorry Peanut it doesn't work that way, get up and walk!!

The weekend ended with some crafting. I finished a few more layouts and some challenge cards as well.

The first card challenge I finished was for Clean and Simple (http://www.cleanandsimplestamping.blogspot.com/)

this is the sketch and my take on it:

The second card challenge finished was for Sweet Sketch Wednesday (http://www.sweetsketchwednesday.blogspot.com/)

again the sketch and my take on it:

Cheers!

Couple cards done this weekend

This weekend we celebrated my nieces birthday with a pool party on Saturday. I put together the following cards for my niece (she has the sneaker card because we gave her some cash towards new shoes) and one for my sil as it was her birthday just days before.


I did these based on the following challenges as well:

Yesterday we spent the day in Point Roberts where we had a wonderful lunch and hours of playtime at the beach, it was a truly awesome weekend!!!

Cheers