A couple new additions to the shop

It has been a crazy busy week and the next few days don't appear to be much slower. I have a feeling that between now and Christmas there won't be any slow weeks.
The pumpkins will be carved tomorrow and the candy is ready so all is looking good for Halloween.

I did find time to put together a few more pieces for the shop. I would love your feedback.

Baby Boy Shower - cupcake toppers

I also found some patterned cardstock to make cupcake wrappers with, these I think are perfect to coordinate with the turkey cupcake toppers. Great for Thanksgiving.

We are off to watch a local hockey game tonight, the boys are really excited, especially the youngest as this is his first game.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!



Thanksgiving layout finished

It did take a few days longer than I had expected but I have put together the Thanksgiving 2011 layout I have been working on.

Cheers

Holy pumpkin

The plan was to go pumpkin hunting at the patch today, unfortunately the weather had a different idea. It was pouring today!  Hoping tomorrow will be a little better, as much as I love the pumpkin patch not feeling the mud!
I have been searching the web for pumpkin carving ideas and came across this pumpkin

This is so cool. We are planning on 8 pumpkins this year, I am thinking 4 carved and 4 like above.

I found this picture and idea at http://www.curbly.com/  - they have some fantastic Halloween ideas to check out.

Cheers

Thanksgiving projects

I had a wonderful day today. Met with the boys teachers today (had to be done during regular school hours since the teachers are on work to rule so I took the day off work) and found that they are doing awesome. Trev had his first "real" test of the year in math and got 21/22, totally impressed :)

I was able to find some extra time to get to work on some Thanksgiving projects I have been wanting to do for the shop. Everything is cut and ready to assemble so with any luck I will be ready to have these added to the shop on Friday.

Not much more going on, just a nice relaxing middle of the week day :) 
Tomorrow however is Spooktacular (fun family Halloween party) so I am ready to see what fun all the kids have managed to put together, I love Halloween.

Cheers

Soccer, Frogs, and Love bugs

Well we lost track of time and didn't get our little guy signed up for soccer this summer. After many requests from him we finally signed him up today. I have never been a fan of soccer, I am a hockey girl, so the idea of going out in the rain and cold wasn't really appealing. I decided to be a better Mom and get over this. I am though debating this decision now after finding out his games are on Saturday at 9 a.m., ugh, so rain, cold, and no sleeping in on Saturday morning.

Found some time today to finish a few projects I have been working on. The first is a frog cupcake topper set, fun colors and great for that person that loves frogs, the second is a diecut set perfect for scrapbook pages titled Love Bug.

I plan to have these listed in the shop tomorrow.

Hope everyone has a great Friday!

Mickey Mouse - toppers and wrappers

It is Thanksgiving weekend and I should be thinking of the 25lb turkey in my fridge and all the dishes that will accompany it but instead I am in crafter mode.
I have put together a new set of Mickey Mouse toppers and wrappers and have just added them to the shop.

Not sure if I will have time tonight to get anything else accomplished..here's hoping.

Have a great Sunday,
Cheers

10 Scrapbooking supplies that I cannot live without

Almost daily I find that there is something new that I could be picking up to add to my everending supply of materials, however I find that I continue to use the same supplies consistently. I thought I would put together a list of these supplies.

1. Cardstock - my favorite is Bazzill - http://bazzillbasics.com/ - there is nothing more satisfying then looking at a rainbow of color options, I am always picking up this paper.
2.Cricut machine - I have the expressions machine. I am not sure I would have continued with scrapbooking if I didn't have this machine, it has made the possibilities endless.

3. ATG gun - wow this makes using adhesive a breeze.
4. American Crafts foam dots - I don't think one project is completed without these
5. Scissors - this is a given - I don't have a particular favorite though
6. Copic Markers - http://copicmarker.com/ same story as the cardstock - I can't have enough colors.

7. Paper punches - my favorites right now are most of the Martha Stewart ones including this one:

8. Ribbon
9. Stamps - I find I am a fan of digital stamps
10. Ink - Memento Tuxedo black is a regular for me

What are your must haves for crafting?

Cheers

Soccer Sunday and scrapping

I woke up this morning to a beautiful cloudless blue sky, this was so unexpected as we were advised it was to be raining. So the first thing that came to mind was that the family needed to get outside, off to watch my 12 year old neices soccer game we went.
It was wonderful to be outside, these days I'm sure will be few and far between.
I was also able to get some scrapping done this weekend as well. A few custom scrapbook pages, pages for my boys, and 2 new sets of cupcake toppers.
The first set is one of multi colored dinosaurs:

The second set was for Thanksgiving - 12 Turkeys:

Next up for me are some Mickey Mouse cupcake toppers and wrappers - hope to have them done early this week.

Happy Monday to all!

Applesauce, Hearts and Butterflies

I had every intention of sleeping in this morning, like really sleeping in, but of course the family and the dog had other ideas. The two boys and Dad decided to take off for breakfast to Tim Horton's (apparently this is what they do when I am not up to make breakfast) and as soon as they left the house the dog decided to bark, a horrific don't leave me whining bark. Try as I did to sleep through it, not possible.

Ok so early this morning instead of sleeping I was attempting my first shot at homemade applesauce. Brendan loves the store bought variety and after realizing that I wasn't supplying him with a healthy snack (high fructose corn syrup) I decided this would be a project he and I would share. He was having such a good time putting everything in the pot and then mashing I thought we had a winner, as it turns out I think he will eat it but I believe it may be the high fructose corn syrup he really liked ;) Time will tell as I made a triple batch.
Here is the link to the recipe I used:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sarahs-applesauce/detail.aspx

So after the applesauce experiment, many loads of laundry and a little bit of chilling in between I figured I had a perfect time while the kids played games and dh watched football to get some crafting in.
Here are my latest creations to be added to the shop:

Tomorrow I am hoping to get some dinosaur toppers done, they are next on the list.

Wishing everyone a happy Monday,
Cheers

Halloween costumes and a 12x12 Halloween layout just completed

I have just listed in my shop my latest 12x12 scrapbook layout. The theme....Halloween of course, one of my most favorite days of the year.

Speaking of Halloween, we went out today to get the kids their halloween costumes. I had one of those moments where I needed to remember it's more important to let the kids express themselves and their interests instead of forcing mine onto them. I mean really Luigi!!!! After we got it home I can see that it is super cute just not my idea of the perfect costume, but then again I had my day when I was kid.

Cheers

Lightning McQueen - Cars - cupcake toppers

I finally got around to listing a new set of cupcake toppers on Etsy this evening. Lightning McQueen (Cars) cupcake toppers. As usual these are a set of 12, they are done in red and each has a different image. They can be customized with a different color background and if more than 12 are needed that would not be a problem.

 http://www.etsy.com/listing/80300280/cars-lightning-mcqueen-cupcake-toppers

Cheers

Our first family camping trip

We just came back from our first camping trip and we had a BLAST. When we asked the boys to rate camping from 1 - 10, 10 being the best they both gave it a vote of 16! So I have to say it was a huge success. We roasted marshmallows, hot dogs and had our fair share of s'mores.
After battling with the tent I can say everything else went smoothly. We did see some rain on Saturday, which unfortunately was to be beach day, but for the most part the weather was great, the boys had a blast and I guarantee it is something we will definitely do again in the future.

While camping we also took a break to enjoy some go cart racing. I am not a racer at heart so I am the photographer. Trevor went on his own for the first time and did a great job. It was really funny because at first his cart wouldn't get going, from where I was I couldn't figure out why, after he returned he told me that he didn't know he needed to take his foot off the brake in order to get moving :)

It was a perfect family weekend and I can't wait to do more of this very soon.

Cheers

Wonderful Birthday weekend!

I had such a great weekend!!! It was my birthday on Saturday and I had one special request, a night of fireworks and a great steak dinner.

We spent the first part of the day car shopping, I was getting such a kick out of the fact that the one year I say no presents my dh decides to buy me a car, lol. Just kidding, our vehicle has been acting up lately so we thought it might be a great time to look for a new one.

The Ford Edge was the car of choice this day, awesome vehicle but just a little pricey for us. We have not had a car payment for some time so the thought of a payment freaks me out. Anyway more on this in a little bit.

Back to Saturday....after the car shopping we took off for Granville Island. A great tourist stop but honestly not a place we visit often. Traffic was a mess so we didn't have a lot of time to look around before we stopped for dinner. I was craving a steak so we went to the Keg, mmmmmmmmmmm.

Once dinner was over we walked over to Vanier park to take in the Celebration of Light...this is a fireworks competition held each year in Vancouver where different countries put on a fireworks display to music. China and Spain had already competed. 30 minutes of spectacular fireworks off a barge in English Bay, honestly it doesn't get much better. We saw a wonderful sunset, ate kettle corn (not sure how we could after dinner) and watched dancing colors in the sky.

Such a wonderful birthday!

Back to the car, we changed our minds regarding the edge and put a deposit today down on a 2011 Escape, this will be our third Escape in a row but we know we love this vehicle and with all the bells and whistles we added it should be a great fit for many years to come. We haven't completely decided, just put the deposit down because there are not many of them left and we wanted to be sure to get the color we wanted. Plan is to sleep on it so we'll see tomorrow.

Cheers

Etsy listings up

Just wanted to provide an update - the cupcake toppers have been listed:

Winnie the Pooh - http://www.etsy.com/listing/78493807/winnie-the-pooh-cupcake-toppers-set-of

Dora the Explorer - http://www.etsy.com/listing/78493464/dora-the-explorer-cupcake-toppers-set-of

Cheers :)

Sun and Crafting...what a wonderful weekend

Well we finally saw the sun this weekend, it's been so long seeing it here that I almost forgot what it looked like ;)
Unfortunately not the whole weekend was spent outside, not realizing it was going to be nice I promised my youngest that I would take him today to see Cars, we took the Trev to see Harry Potter earlier this week (what a great movie!!) so this was only fair, just really didn't want to be in a theatre during one of our only nice days of the summer.

After spending time in the garden, kids running through the sprinkler and having a great bbq dinner I finally found some time to finish some new cupcake toppers..these will be added to the Etsy shop tomorrow. Just as a reminder they can be customized with other colors and coming soon for all sets will be coordinating invitations and tags for treat bags.

Both the Winnie the Pooh and Dora sets are sets of 12.

Cheers :)

Planning for our first camping trip- assistance please :)

I came home from work a month or so ago and received a very elaborate drawing from my then 5 year old. It depicted an image of a campfire and smores (they were black and I was advised that they were overcooked, lol).

The writing on this picture noted Yo Mom Y don't we go camping? Looking at this picture I realized that we have been on many vacations to places that many young kids don't go, now this has always been my plan I want to experience the world with my kids, but we have never taken a camping trip. I grew up camping on an almost weekly basis so this blew me away that we had not yet done this.
So here I am now trying to figure out what is needed to put this trip together and make this an awesome time.

I have noted before I am a list person, so the list goes together this weekend, I mean we have nothing camping related, not even a cooler. This is just a weekend trip so the list shouldn't be too long but I really want to be sure that the boys experience all they can of camping. The only reason I can be happy about this awful cold and rainy weather is that I hope we have had enough of it so we don't have a campfire ban when we get away, I mean really why camp if you can't have a campfire ;)

If anybody has any great ideas for menu ideas or tips for making the list a little shorter that would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Had to run away to find summer

I have been reading a bunch of blogs lately of others speaking of their hot summers, well I am not sure of what is going on here in our area but we didn't have Spring and still have not seen Summer!

So we ran away for a couple weeks to find it....off to the Caribbean and Orlando. We had an absolutely wonderful time and honestly it was hard to come back. On the trip back I was hoping we would land and find that summer arrived while we were gone, well not so...the rain has not stopped and hoodies are required in the evenings...just crazy!

Still here!!

I took a blog break for the last few months but after re-reading posts decided to get back at it.

Life is going full speed as usual. Both boys are in baseball so we are spending a lot of time at the park. This would normally be a great time if it wasn't soooooooooooo cold :)  I am still cold (have not been able to warm up) and I have been home for hours.

My other boys (the Canucks) are doing well in the playoffs so this is taking up a bit of time as well. Not complaining, I hope to be watching the Canucks well into June!

Cheers

Disneyland and rain

This past weekend we (my sister and I) took my Mom to Disneyland for the weekend for her birthday. It was such a great time!! My Mom bought her first set of Mickey ears and wore them the entire day at the park.

Another first....she went on her first what we call grown up ride, Indiana Jones. As kids my Dad always took us on the roller coasters and bigger rides while my Mom sat and waited for us. My Mom is a huge people watcher, not a trait I understand, so she was never bored during these times but I really wanted my Mom to experience such a ride, so at the young age of 57 she took the plunge!, you should have seen her face, totally freaked out the whole time we were waiting to get on the ride, when it was over she says "I have been scared of this my whole life???, why?"...too funny but we still couldn't convince her to try Space Mountain :)

We were going to check out the beaches of SoCal on Sunday but were met with rain. We still made the trip to Santa Monica and Venice Beach (not my cup of tea) but didn't spend much time because with the rain it didn't have the same appeal. We then headed off to Beverly Hills to check out the homes, WOW.

Anyway we had such a great time and I would love to do it again! Soon :)

Cheers

New Sesame Street cupcake toppers

I have just finished another set of cupcake toppers today, they are super cute ( if I say so myself, lol) but I am a sucker for Sesame Street.

Cheers

Little bit of this...Little bit of that

I have little tidbits today - the way my brain is thinking these days ;)

Etsy shop - I have just listed the Valentine cupcake toppers in my Etsy shop on sale. They are now 20% off!!

Kids - I am so proud of Trevor - he has taken up the love of reading just like his Mom. Every time I turn around he is reading and I love it. For Christmas he received a box set of Ronald Dahl books and has so far finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He is now on to Goosebumps, not sure what that one is about but based on the jokes in the back it is no doubt a book for boys!!

Home - Our new house is turning into a money trap. First we had to block the bottom of the deck to keep the raccoons from nesting (they may be cute but they freak me out!), now a new toilet. I was under the assumption that it was a new toilet but given the fact that is a no name toilet (no markings on it at all) it was obviously not built to last. The plumber is in tomorrow.

Came across a new recipe tonight and thought I would share as finding something that both boys and Dad likes is rare:
Hearty Lasagne Soup

1 pound ground beef

1 small onion, chopped (about 1/4 cup)
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
3 1/2 cups Swanson® Beef Broth (Regular, 50% Less Sodium or Certified Organic)
1 can (14 .5 ounces) diced tomatoes
1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning, crushed
1 1/2 cups uncooked mafalda or corkscrew-shaped pasta  ( just used broken lasagne noodles)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1.Cook the beef, onion, garlic and parsley in a 3-quart saucepan over medium-high heat for 10 minutes, or until it's well browned, stirring often to break up the meat. Pour off any fat.

2.Stir the broth, tomatoes and Italian seasoning in the saucepan and heat to a boil.

3.Stir the pasta in the saucepan. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes or until the pasta is tender. Stir in the cheese. Serve with additional cheese, if desired.

On that note I am off to chill and watch American Idol

Snow, Snow, Snow, ready for Spring

Snow in 49 of 50 states...that is crazy! What is a snowbird (ok not quite there yet but it is the plan) to do when you offer no refuge from the snow :) I mean Hawaii....seriously, something is terribly wrong with this thought.


We were blasted with a huge dump of snow on Tuesday night but the temp has risen so drastically that now we just have a huge wet mess!

My head is already in Spring so I spent last night putting together St. Patrick's Day cupcake toppers. These have been listed in my Etsy shop and are ready to ship immediately. So now you can pick up Valentines and St. Patrick's cupcake toppers and be ready for the upcoming parties this spring!

Hope everyone stays warm and the sun soon begins to shine!

A lovely Sunday

Since life has become a little less hectic it is nice to have a quiet Sunday to enjoy just relaxing (isn't this the definition of Sunday, lol)
Today Trevor started baseball camp, it's 10 weeks of fundamentals that should help him get right into the swing of things when the actual season starts.
While Trev and Dad were doing baseball, Brendan and I decided to take advantage of this beautiful (= not raining) day and kick the soccerball around the backyard. Since moving into this home in the late fall we haven't been able to really use the backyard, what a pleasure to have enough space to play and not worry about the ball going over the fence.

I was able to get some Etsy things completed as well today. I have listed another Valentine set of cupcake toppers. Next on the list for toppers are the St.Patricks day ones.

Off to my sisters for dinner, wow it's an even better Sunday when I don't have to cook, ha ha ha.

Hope everyone had a great Sunday and a wonderful upcoming week.

Cheers

New Valentines Day cupcake toppers

I have just finished listing a new set of cupcake toppers perfect for Valentines Day.
These were tons of fun to complete and I hope to make another variation of this set later today.

Love to make it a longer post but my oldest is bugging me for a Just Dance competition on the Wii.
Oh what fun :)

Princess cupcake toppers

Just finished a custom order for Princess cupcake toppers, tons of fun.
I am in the process of designing a few Valentine themed toppers and then I want to start working on banners.
I have a custom scrapbook project on the go as well and hope to have this finished by the end of the weekend.

On the personal front I have to tell you my oldest sons teacher made my day today. When he came home from school he had a dvd in his possession. His teacher has been putting together a video scrapbook of sorts and today we received the first installment, Sept - Dec. Such a super idea!! Typcially you don't get to see them in this part of there lives and for 45 minutes today we did, he was so proud, as was I. I can only imagine how much fun it will be to look at 20 years from now :) .....as long as we can still play DVD's, lol.

Cheers

2010 has come and gone - 2011 here we come!!

Wow what a year it has been!!!! Probably one of the busiest and rewarding years ever.
With the Olympics, Rorys medical case being resolved, new house and travel it feels like we haven't been still for quite some time.

As a person who LOVES to be busy I can honestly say I am looking forward to some slow time. Time that I can use to concentrate on making our new house a home, concentrate on my Etsy business (something I hope to grow to a full time venture) and just BE.

I hope everyone had a safe a wonderful holiday seaon and all the best in 2011!!!!

Cheers