Scrapbook Corner

Good morning...and isn't it quite the frosty morning today?
I got up, having full intentions of driving the kids to school and mom to work, with the -37 windchill hovering around us today! After I got home, Charlie and I hung out together, dusting the knick-knacks, eating cheerios, and eventually ended up in the scrapbook room, catching up on unfinished projects. Perfect for a freezing cold morning.

Now, with nothing much to do, we are going to venture out and pick up my grandma, and head to our "bustling" downtown, pop into Fields, and take mom out to lunch. After which I will finish up the laundry, start supper, and sit with my tea and a book until the children come home. It's not very glamorous, but it is my life!

Scrapbook Corner...and tea.

Well, all I've managed to get done this morning was a load of laundry and alot of sitting on my rump, extracting files into my scrapbook folder and playing around with some layouts.
I went to Rosetown yesterday to bring my grandma up for a week or so to visit, and on my way back I was hit suddenly with a nasty sinus cold! I spent the entire trip dabbing my eyes, and squinting to see the road ahead of me through my tears! Even though I was wearing sunglasses, the white sky melding with the white snowy fields was almost more than I could bear. I stopped in NBattleford for water, maximum strength halls, and a travel size bottle of Advil. By the time I got home I was feeling better, but had to make it through a meeting that night...and later yet, as we all know how we get when we are sick at night! Worse.
This morning I did not want to get out of bed, and have been scrapbooking ever since with the laptop on my lap. Poor Charlie...I'm not much fun today, even though she is full of a chest cold too, as are the other two.
Scapping always lifts my spirits, with my teapot filled with peppermint tea at my elbow, and the snowy scene out my window to soothe me. You know those commercials with the women taking a sip of tea, slowly lowering the cup just enough to see their smile? Like they know a secret you don't? That's me, drinking my peppermint tea, as anyone who knows me will understand. I have a weird habit of leaving the teabag in my mug the entire time, refilling two or three times, until that poor teabag is nothing but sludgy mush.
Ahhh enough talk of tea, I think I will have another cup.

papers: 2 ps

ladybug elements: dsp

QP paper: raspberry road designs

word and elements: 2 ps in a bucket

Charlie's Light

Here is Charlie's light that came on Thursday...we all really love it. It is sweet and just right for the size of her bedroom. It throws little rainbows on the floor, which she loves, and she tries to step on them. I really love the pink crystals hanging from it, they are so unique, and we've never seen them before. All in all, it was a great buy, it looks great, and we're happy with it.
Now we've got trim to buy and paint and I'm still waiting on fabric for her bedspread. I'll post a picture of it all when it's finally finished!

Scrapbook Corner

Filmstrip frame, word elements, and addons: 2 ps in a Bucket

Layered frames and paper: DSP and 2ps

Charlie's Room...Complete!

Well, after a horrible weekend of a raging fever burning Charlie up, I was able to finish painting her room, which I also started on Friday.
We found her a great bed on Kijiji, and with the transition from her crib to a big girl bed I wanted her room repainted, as it was green, and not very girly. I have always wanted to do polka dots, and so I took the plunge and painted the wall brown and painted pink polka dots, the design of them inspired by a doily I once saw.
I ordered fabric from eBay for her bedspread, so am waiting for that yet, and am also waiting on a chandelier that has pink crystals hanging from it.
And poor Charlie, well, her fever finally broke last night, after 4 days of 39 to 40 degrees temperatures. I just couldn't seem to regulate it or break that fever. So I begged to see a doctor yesterday, as they were going to make me wait to see one. Then they called me to come in with her at 2:00pm, and yes, we were right in knowing that there was something behind the fever. She has a terrible throat infection. It goes to show that no one knows their own child like they do, and parents should always trust their gut feelings when it comes to illnesses. It doesn't help when there aren't enough doctors around anymore, and so we have to do what we can, including having some degree of patience with clinic staff and said doctors. But we all know what it's like, bathing feverish little bodies all through the night, keeping watch over them and suffering along with them while we suffer through the grumpiness and misery. It's not fun, and patience wears thin after awhile.
Today is another day, and Charlie is finally leaving the 3 foot perimeter she drew around me. The sun is shining, finally, even though the snow is up to our armpits (well, the kids' anyhow), and so I think it will be a good day today.

Wii Fun

Ever since we got the Wii from Santa 3 years ago, I always thought it would be something fun for any kid of any age...and I'm glad I was right.

We have all had so much fun with it, from Grandma and Grandpa playing bowling all the way down to Charlie pretending to sing along with Brandon on the microphone.

It is always a topic of conversation, and getting a new game at Christmas or on a birthday is an exciting time for the kids (and mom too).

This year's gifts included Pictionary, which has so far proved to be fun for us all, as we go on teams as girls against the guys, and Karaoke Revolution and Just Dance 2, which Brandon is great at and is more fun than I thought it would be.

I like that I feel a little less guilty when the kids are playing a game that gets them to move around and dance. They don't play the Wii too often, which was a concern for me, but instead will turn it on for 10 minutes once in a while. I have gotten some good videos over the years of everyone playing, but after looking at them today, I had to upload the PG rated ones, which means I guess I can never post videos of the adults playing.

Scrapbook Corner

Quick pages are a great way to showcase your photographic memories in a layout that is already made up for you. They are especially wonderful if you are drawing an absolute blank in your creativity. They also offer a fast solution to that jumble of pictures that have something or some event in common but you are having a hard time bringing them together. I like the collage quick pages like these ones by Rhonna Farrer, a designer from Two Peas. She uses wistful scrolls and nostalgic patterns and figures, like the one above, which is a design concept I'm over the moon for. I buy alot of her design elements and digital kits, and usually incorporate something of hers in each of my layouts.

This kit, called Christmas Memory Album kit, was one of the kits I ordered online after Christmas with my gift certificate from my sister in law. I have a great 8x8 album and these pages are all in 8x8 format, just the perfect size for a quickie album to display our Christmas memories. The pages are all partially adorned, so you can leave them as they are, or keep layering elements to get your desired look. While I would love to own Adobe Photoshop, my basic scrapbook software is still keeping me going strong, and about 90% of the products I download are all in .png format, which is compatible with most, if not all, software programs.



Does Supernanny come to Canada?

Whenever my kids are getting under my skin...and I mean REALLY getting under every layer of skin, I always threaten that I'm going to send them away to a country where the children there have no moms and dads, and they have to eat rice every day and live in a mud house. If this seems extreme to you then you aren't the only one. Even I feel guilty after saying that to them, but what I'm really trying to do is get them to respect me, and each other, so that the constant nagging, fighting, and picking at each other will ease to a dull roar...rather than resulting in the shouting match that eventually follows all of this. And truth be told, the kids' shouting is a direct result of my shouting. It's a nasty cycle that is getting better, but still happens.
Just when I think I'm really getting the hang of "practicing my patience", all hell breaks loose and we all go back to square one. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only mother going through this, and have had the guilty pleasure of giving in to crying jags once in a while.
But I know I'm not in this alone. My mom tells me stories of my brother, who would reduce her to tears when he was 8, 9, and 10, and she would have to pawn him off on grandma for the afternoon. I think the frustration just gets to a certain point, for mother and child, and when it finally boils over, a meltdown inevitably follows.
And when you think you are the parent of the worst child in the world, just do what I did last night. Turn on Supernanny. Within minutes you will see that someone else is the parent of the worst children in the world, not you, and then you can breath a sigh of relief.
Mike and I did just that last night, and we looked at each other, looked at our kids, and discovered that our kids are just kids. Certainly not these demons disguised as children on our television.
 We are our children's role models, and if we are loud, expressive, and like to shout (we are a loud family), then our kids will be also. So the change starts with us, not with them.
We are all working together, and it is working.........so far.

The first post of 2011!

This year has gone by so fast that I'm left wondering where it went. When one has to look in picture folders to remember the dates of events from the past year, obviously something is wrong! I found myself doing just that, as the last two years seem to run into each other. Only my pictures can offer proof of the happenings in our life here in Maidstone!
I went to the school this morning to help with tying skates for Jacelyn's Kindergarten class, and was able to pawn Charlie off on a pregnant friend on the sidelines so I could help her out on the ice. It was her first time on skates, and, after falling for the 30th time,she finally caught on half way through. I was able to watch her from the sidelines, shuffling along with her friends. It was adorable and I was very proud of her. I wish I had had my camera, and of course I didn't, but I will be sure to take it next week. There was something so sweet and innocent in watching her skate hand in hand with her friends, taking each other down and helping each other back up, and I'd like to capture that.
I have been working on updating my albums, and have done quite a bit so far.
Here is one page that I completed last night.

elements from 2ps