A few new items I want to share

I am starting to get my Etsy shop back up and running and wanted to show some of the items I listed today.

These and other items can be found in my shop www.kriskropmemories.etsy.com

Cheers

Why I am so proud of my city

I just wanted to share this link with others, I absolutely loved this and thought it was beautiful.
I was born and raised in the Vancouver area and can't wait to have the city showcased to the world in less than two weeks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xMz2SnSWS4

Cheers

Letters of intent

Dear My Bug,
This past weekend was honestly one of the scariest we have had since your car accident. For reasons I still don't understand you decided on your own that my life was so horrible with you that the boys and I should leave and start over. I don't understand what brought this on but I hope that those feelings are truly gone.

When I explain to people for the first time what life is like all I can say is that our life was changed forever the day of your car accident. I definitely lost the husband I knew that day and our boys lost the Dad they knew. Yes you have a brain injury that has altered your personality but even on your worst days all I can say is that you are still a man that makes me happy and I believe our boys are the luckiest kids in the world to have such a great Dad.

I am not sure what your thought process was to come to the conclusion that our life would be happier without you but I NEED you to understand that the vows I spoke 14 years ago were for forever. For better, for worse...no doubt this is the worst but can I tell you I still feel like the luckiest person that we decided all those years ago to walk this life together FOREVER come what may.

I go to bed each and every night and hope that somehow our life can return to the way it was, that you can enjoy the moments of our life to the fullest and that the pain you suffer through daily will diminish. However if this never happens please know that you have a partner in life that will stick by your side and live this life together with you forever!


Love you :)


Dear oldest son,

I have to tell you I am so proud of you! To have a teacher (not yours) search me out at a school to tell me that you are such a sweet kid and that every time she sees you you make her smile. What a wonderful thing to hear. You are a sweet kid with a heart of gold. Love you to pieces!


Dear Provincial Government,

you are my gripe for the week. I have to say first off that I am so excited and happy to have the Olympics coming to town.... great job getting this done. I do also though have to say that I am very disappointed to hear that you bought 1 million dollars worth of Olympic tickets. In a time when so many are hurting financially and so many programs are closing down due to a lack of funding I am honestly blown away that you find no issues spending money on tickets to Olympics events. Please let me know how you can hear the stories of elderly programs closing down and essentially leaving them helpless and not feel that inappropriate decisions were made with these purchases.

If you would like to read others Letters of Intent be sure to check out Julies Blog, just click the link :)

Cheers

Uneventful days

It has been a pretty uneventful last few days which is why I took a blog break.

This past weekend on Saturday we took a trip across the border to return some Christmas gifts to Target. Of course while down there I had to do some grocery shopping. My Sister and I always make plans to make plans to go shopping down south in WA but to date that hasn't happened. Aiming for Sunday, we'll see. It's just crazy, with a 4 year old we go through a lot of Goldfish crackers, I was able to buy the same size bag as up here in a multitude of flavours for $1.33, the same bag where I shop here at home is $3.79. Not all items are less expensive but I would venture to guess that approximately 75% are, and now since the border isn't as strict regarding how much can be brought back (I brought beer back last month that I declared and had no issues, a couple years ago I would have been sent in to pay duty) the worry of duty seems to be a thing of the past. Of course now that I have typed that I am going to be hit every time I go across :)


After shopping we went to Jack 'n the Box, my family's favorite, we don't have one up here so very rarely is a trip made south without at least one Sourdough Jack!
(I know this doesn't go with my post about being healthier, oops, lol)

Sunday we had a double birthday celebration for my niece and brother-in-law. We had dinner at a restaurant that we (Rory and I) hadn't been to before. We had to get there at 4 p.m. when they opened or we would have to wait in a line outside the restaurant. It is apparently this busy everyday. The portion sizes were out of control (each dish enough for 3 people) and I think this is the reason they are so busy. The food was good but definitely not something I would line up outside in the pouring rain for 1 to 1 1/2 hours for.

Other than that it was pretty quiet which was nice.

I am off to a hockey game tomorrow, Vancouver vs. St. Louis, this is the last game they will play at home for over a month as there ice will be taken over by the Olympics so hopefully it's a good send off for the boys.

Cheers

Valetine Etsy feature

It has been quite a while since I have done an Etsy feature. After falling in love with many Valentines items over the last few days I have decided to feature a few of my favorites.

Be sure to check them out, I will link the pictures to their shops if you want to take a closer look.

Cheers :)

Healthy Living

I have decided to get serious this year and make some changes in how our family eats and gets active, it is my goal for us parents to lose quite a bit of weight and for us all to be healthier.

After skating this past weekend and walking around downtown I realized just how easy it is to enjoy quality time (which includes physical activity and not just the Wii) with the family with very little effort.

The only problem was that each of these outings was followed by a lunch/dinner out which was full of fat and lots of other junk! Don't get me wrong the food was awesome!, but I don't think it is smart to get active skating and then follow it up with a Bonzai Burger at Red Robin.

So I am going to make a huge effort this year to find fun active outings and a fun way to get us all eating healthier, it may drive you crazy but I might start using this blog to help keep me accountable.

If you have any suggestions on how to incorporate more veggies onto picky eaters I would be very grateful, btw the pickiest of the bunch is the DAD!!!

Cheers

I am going to be sore tomorrow :)

Trevors class is going on a field trip this week and next to the skating rink. Since I don't get to take part in many of his outings due to work I decided I would take a few hours off each day to enjoy some skating. One problem I didn't think through. Trevor can't skate and I haven't been skating in about 15 years. We decided to do a practice run today (so Mom doesn't look like an idiot on skates) and I have to say I was presently surprised that my legs remembered what to do!


I was even more surprised and super proud that both Brendan and Trevor took to skating without any incidents, they loved it! Brendan (the little guy) kept telling me to leave him alone, stop following him! Ok, yep, sure bud, you have never been on skates, the place is packed and you are the size of a large 2 year old, you are on your own! I don't think so! I do love his independant nature though.

Last night I finished 4 custom invitations for my niece. The request was purple, with ribbon and no other details on the front. This was hard, for one I don't really like purple, two, I like embellishments, and 3, not sure what 3 is but it was hard :)


I would love your feedback on these (the pictures aren't the best but I really don't want to remove the ribbons to open the cards until my niece and her fiance see them):

The last one here is my favorite, the flower is not yet attached because as I said they didn't want any embellishment. When I saw these flowers I just knew they would be perfect but I didn't want to force it so I thought I would just place it there for them to see, maybe they will change their minds :)

Have a great Monday!!!

A tourist in our own town!

Well we made the venture downtown to be tourists in our own town. It was a little weird getting around because there have been a lot of road closures and parkade closures.

I will be making one last trip downtown before the start of the Olympics at the end of January for a hockey game, I am thinking it might be crazy!

We found our way to the Art Gallery where the countdown clock is situated, it was quite amazing to see how many people were there doing the same thing as us, getting the picture. We were lucky to find a nice guy willing to take the picture of the entire family.

We also went down to Canada Place, I had read that there were some events starting on the 12th of January, I guess I read this wrong because the place was inaccessible as the media has taken it over, this is where many of them will be stationed for the games. We did find the Olympic rings but of course because it was during the day they were not lit, oh well still cool to see them in the harbour.

It was an amazing day, the first time I think we have seen blue sky since before Christmas so it was refreshing to get some fresh air and enjoy the day as a family of 4.

Cheers

Mind numbing day!

Phew, what a mind numbing day I had today. I had to be at work at 7 this morning to take part in an ergonimic training session. The session lasted until 3. It was definitely very informative but do you ever find yourself when in such long meetings drifting at the 5 hour mark. Anything to learn after that point is just wasted on me, I don't know maybe it's just my attention span :)

I finished two more pages for Trevors book tonight, they are from a bowling trip we took when he was 5.

Tomorrow the plan is to visit the Olympic countdown clock, I want to get the kids picture with it before it's gone so they will have mementos to show that they were part of such a wonderful party going on in their city. As you can see from the pic here when taken there were 917 days until the Olympics, we are now done to 28 days, wow!!

We are also going to try to get a pic in front of the rings in the harbour. Not sure how it would work if it's not dark, we'll see.

I will post the pics tomorrow night if all goes according to plan :)


Happy Saturday!

My first card of the year

I put this card together tonight for a co-workers birthday this weekend.

I will also be entering this card into two challenges (something I will be doing more from now on). This card was entered into Inspirational Card Sketches using the sketch below and Cute Card Thursday, pink and grey challenge.

Have a great Friday!

Wordless Wednesday

I know it's supposed to be wordless but I just have to say this is what happens to a Shitzu if you allow them to stay outside in the rain where they find a mud puddle. Oh what fun!!!!!

I am only probably about a year behind everyone else

but I finally did it. I finished all 4 Twilight books in the past 4 weeks. I really didn't think I wanted to read the books and declined many peoples offer to borrow the books until..... I finally saw Twilight and it sucked me in :)


Having read the saga back to back to back I can honestly say that I do need a break but look forward to seeing New Moon in the next few weeks. I didn't want to see the next movie until I was done the books, I am ready now.

WooHoo I did it!!!

Ok so before I noted that I would not have any New Years resolutions and I am sticking to it! I have however made some decisions to make some changes and one that I noted before was that I am going to work more on my boys scrapbooks. I love doing custom work but I have to say it has taken me away from the boys books and I am very happy to get back at them.

So anyway here are the first two pages I have completed, it is of Brendans 3rd birthday, yes he will be turning 5 so like I said I am a little behind :)

The next pages I will be working on are of a family bowling trip, can't wait.

I do however have some custom work to finish up this week. I am making some wedding invitation samples and when I have the samples ready I would love some feedback, this is a few days away.




Hope you had a great Monday!

I guess if you spam a million people one will bite

But I sure do feel for that one person. What am I talking about you ask. Below is an e-mail I received today and I honestly can't believe with all the stories on t.v. and in the news that this still works. Please remember it's a scam!!!!

A new job opening in your area, its a work from home/office position and you are notrequired to pay any registration fee or pay for any application form before you getemployed.

Our Company seeks the service of a payment processor who would act as a medium of reachingour customers.
If you choose to work with us, you do not need to quit your present job, orhave problems with your employers as this is on a part time basis

THIS IS WHAT IT ENTAILS:
1. Get/receive payment from clients/Customers.
2. Process Payments at your Bank.
3. Deduct 10% which is your commission/Payment on check cashed.
4. Forward the remaining 90% to the information that will be provided later on.

I will need you to provide me with your basic personal info such as:
Full Name:
Contact Address:
City:
State:
Zip Code:
Country:
Phone Number:
Fill the above application so as to qualify you for the position.
Richard S. Lincoln

Just my two cents
Cheers

My first craft fair and what I learned

So this past holiday season I finally attended my first craft fair as a vendor. I did it with very little notice and have to say that I was just pooped when it was all done. To say I didn't want to look at another Christmas card was an understatement, which really sucked considering over the next few weeks that was all the mail I received.

Anyhoo I learned a valuable lesson, as I was successful (I think for my first show, I made my table fee and supplies back and about $100, not so bad considering it was a monsoon outside and the foot traffic wasn't as heavy as usual, so I was told) and would love to do more shows, that lesson is to start now. I am going to organize myself so that I am not only putting in great effort to my Etsy and ebay stores but into planning and creating the items I can do now and properly storing them, this way I am not up until 3 a.m. the morning before a show.

Also I know I have said this before, bit of a broken record, but the boys books are taking a top priority this year, I am so far behind and really want to focus on those as well. I am off to a good start as I have printed photos for about 6 layouts and will do these before anything else.
So the reason for this post is too let you know that I am not off my rocker when you see Christmas goodies posted around Easter, I am just getting prepared :)

Happy New Year!!! I know a little late ;)

I would like to wish everyone a happy New Year and hope your holidays were the best ever.

2010, wow, is all I can say. I can remember the day that we were awarded the Winter Olympics (7 years ago) and 2010 seemed so very far away and now they are but 5 weeks away. I heard before kids how time goes so much faster once you have them but holy moly time is flying!!!

So life around our area is going to be a little crazy for the next 3 months with the Olympics here but also very exciting. I am so excited! I didn't get tickets to anything but do plan to take time off work to enjoy many of the free events/concerts that will be going on.

We had a bit of excitement in our neighbourhood earlier this week. I guess excitement isn't the right word, scary is better.

My husband saw a red light flashing and I went to investigate, only to find a house in our subdivision was fully engulfed in flame. Thank goodness the firefighters were able to put it out before it jumped to other houses, we are all so close to one another. I only found out today that this house was a grow-op, have to say I am not too fond of the idea of this in my neighbourhood (or any neighborhood for that matter) but as my husband said you never really now your neighbors anymore and this could happen anywhere. Here is the pic from the local paper. Apparently about $200k in damage and not covered by insurance because of the grow-op, what a waste!

So I have decided to make some changes in my life (excercise, get healthy, yada, yada, yada) but I am not going to think about them until the 15th, that way they won't be resolutions to be broken in my mind, oh I am so clever, lol.

Anyways it has been quite a while since I last posted so I am going to take baby steps, lol, getting back into the swing of things.

Have a great one!