Tissue Please

I've been wondering--debating--since last night whether I should post this, or not. If I do, I just don't know how to go about it. I don't know how vague or to the point I should be. For just one moment- this moment only- the guard is going to be let down. Because my heart is aching so badly, I just need to get it off my virtual chest. (Well, and literal chest, too).

I suppose, in a way, I'm mourning. Mourning the fact that there will be no more children in my future. But, I desperately want another baby. Its no secret. 3 was always my magic number. But, there it is. No more kids, and I'm having a supremely difficult time accepting it.

While I'm happy for the friends that have just found out they're having number 3 (or more), I keep wondering how many more {pregnancies} I'll find out about...news that will just keep bringing the pain to the surface again. And, now the tears flow...

163* the precious two I already have
164* this blog
165* a wonderful chat with a wonderful friend
166* my deep freeze!!!!
167* the rest of my flowers are finally planted
168* pizza, for the nights I don't feel like cooking
169* their happy chatter when they wake in the mornings
170* another day

I have a couple layouts to share today:

This layout was inspired by sketch #140 over at Got Sketch?  While I was browsing through the mountains of patterned paper I have, I came across the green 'friends' paper. How fitting! Both items in the pictures were given to us by friends, so I thought it worked perfectly to help tell this story!

I decided to dry emboss using my cuttlebug to add some texture (with the script embossing folder)

and, I incorporated more stamping into this lo, too. I briefly thought about stamping the journalling spot onto another piece of paper, but it quickly got icksnayed (sp??) because...I was going to give a couple excuses, but the real reason is I was lazy!! HAHA

And, for some more visual interest, is some border punching! My favourite technique these days!

This next layout is based on May's sketch by Jill Sarginson (which I will be submitting to the site) over at Canadian Scrapbooker. This one was so simple, and a lot of fun to create. And, may I just say, I'm in love with it!!! I have to say, this paper pack is my new fave!! (Or, maybe its the colours together--or both!!)

Except for the yellow paper (which is card stock from Autumn Leaves--Wally world) and the beige card stock base (which is from DeSerres- don't know the brand or line), all the paper on this pack is from the Recollections "Elegance" line. It really is, isn't it?? Elegant, that is. And charming. And romantic. And, just plain yummy!!!!!!

I thought using twine would be a neat touch, to add just a bit more to the romantic, vintage flair...

In this corner, where the hearts reside, I had a stamp of a vintage postcard (that was matted a few times on different pieces of card stock and patterned paper), but I felt it was too bulky and top heavy, so I took it off- then had to find a creative way to cover up the mess I'd made from taking it off! The result was the two hearts, and this:

the border along the top added just a bit more charm to an already fabulous lo! I can't wait to submit this!

And, with the beginning of this blog post in mind, and how heavy my heart has been the last while, comes the title on this lo- 'heaven sent'. If these are the only angles I'm going to be blessed with, I had better take every chance I can get to love and cherish them...more than I already do!

So, I know Addison is the only one in this lo. Another will be coming of Maren shortly :)

(Ever have days where you swap out the picture you originally intended to scrapbook, then decided that you didn't like it, and wanted to scrap something else? Yeah, this was one of those moments). I may still use the picture I had intended to scrapbook, but I'll save it for another day. Cause, I'm sure it will come up again, whatever it was!

Inspiration Saver

It was late when I got yesterdays' post up, so I thought I'd come back and elaborate a little bit more on the whole sketch thing. There's just more to it than what I posted yesterday.

It suddenly dawned on me, while I was collecting my Scrapbooks Etc. magazine (and then it quickly spread to the other magazine that I faithfully follow- Creating Keepsakes- and more recently, Canadian Scrapbooker!!), that rather than keeping the entire magazine after its read, just keep the pages that has the layouts (or stories) that I find most inspiring and helpful, and keep them in a binder, for future reference. I'm especially glad, now, that I've done that, because SBE has decided to stop publication! It cuts down on space required to store the magazines (and eventually thrown out), and I'm helping save other trees from being cut down by recycling what I don't want to keep.

Ah, its simple. But, it makes this girl feel good.

The binder that I keep all my inspiration in, has dividers separating each magazine, cards, and lastly a special divider for 'projects'.

This is where I finally decided to take the plunge and try out Project 365. There was an article all about it in one of my Scrapbooks Etc. magazines, and after reading about it in depth, I gave it a go. I'm thoroughly enjoying it! (So much so, that I've been thinking of pursuing it into another year. I know I've had a few ideas which I mentioned in previous posts, so we'll see. I am fairly certain I will return to this project again in the future).

This overall project didn't begin with my scrappy magazines. It actually began with saving recipes from my Kraft Canada magazine--which I'm so glad I did, because now a person has to buy subscriptions in order to keep getting the magazine. I'm so disappointed! I loved that it was free! I do, thankfully still receive emails from them with other inspiring and delicious recipes, so all is not lost.

I haven't marked everything just yet in this binder, but I was putting those little hearts beside our most favourite recipes, sort of a quick reference. I'll finish that one day, too!

Does anyone else keep a binder full of their inspirations? I'd love to hear about it!

UR the BEST

159* the robin that had quite a bit to say this morning
160* the kind gentleman that asked if I needed help lifting bags full of pea gravel
161* this:

While I was peeling potatoes for supper tonight, Maren came up to me and hugged my leg, and said: "you're the best, mama"


I hope it wasn't my ears playing tricks on me, because it sure sounded like that's what she said.

One can only hope- and hope- right?

I'm kind of intrigued by the notion of following a sketch when it comes to scrapbooking. It began with joining MMD's design team, and now has expanded to another site (when inspiration is lacking); and so when I came across got sketch? I decided to try following a sketch (the most recent one), and after thinking on it for a few days, threw my inhibitions to the wind, and will submit it!

Here it is!

Its dark, I know, but I'm a nut when it comes to taking pictures of my projects, and will sometimes take them at 10:30 at night (or whenever I finish them), because I don't want to have to worry about getting it done the next morning (because 1- I'm too excited about it; and 2- I might not get around to it the next morning).

Addison has been practicing how to do her somersaults. Being the cautious child she is, she isn't brave enough, and hasn't learned to push herself completely over yet, so I help her do it- to the excited 'do it again!' pleas. And, what totally melts my heart, is that she must hang on to Kiki and not let it go. You'll see her kiki (blankie) in the bottom left side of the pics.

162* hearing the children playing at recess and lunch (a couple blocks away)

Promises

I  promised that there would be layouts of some of the pictures my sister took on Mothers' Day.

Here's one of them:

I wanted the main focus of this one to be the picture, hence all the white space and the minimal embellishing. The transparency that's overlaid the picture says, 'walk beside me and be my friend' (Albert Camus).

140* little feet stomping on the floor
141* two littles pretending to be puppies
142* and in the next instant, they're frogs
143* little "yay, P's" coming from the back seat
144* play dates
145* little "yay, daddy's" coming from the back seat
146* meeting up with dear husband for lunch
147* paper
148* punches
149* ribbon
150* the bell that rings from the church a few blocks away
151* nourishment
152* friends
153* pictures
154* Caillou
155* Toopy and Binoo
156* "Huck" (aka Tuba; aka Veggie Tales)
157* sunroofs
158* help with the kids while grocery shopping

Growth

Just wanted to share a couple lo's with you, including one with some close ups!!

I didn't get any close ups of this one, and I probably should have. The girl and the metro sign were fussy cut from the white patterned paper that the pictures are matted on. Then I added pop dots to the girl to raise her up a bit, give her a more 3d appearance. It worked perfectly for what I wanted to title this lo: zoomy!!! (Thankfully I didn't, because I think metro works just as well!!)

As my journaling suggests, I put a can of pop in the freezer to chill for dh, and we both forgot about it. What my journaling didn't include was that it blew up at 6:30 in the morning, while the kids were still sleeping, and I was sitting here at my desk, either cruising sb.com or writing a blog post. It scared me- I had no idea what that sound was! Then, I was worried it would have woken the kids up. It didn't. Phew!! I shrugged it off, then I forgot all about it; by the time I headed to the freezer to pull something out for supper, this is what I found. OH YEAH. Oops!! LOL (On a side note, now we stick our pop in the ice machine- it does a remarkable job of chilling our drinks- and they don't freeze!...or explode)


The background paper on this one is MS. I thought the design in it worked well to highlight the mess the frozen pop made of my freezer; not to mention, it was a similar colour to the liquid diet Pepsi is anyways! The explosion die cuts were made with my cricut, as was the title. I used my paper tearer to rip the strip of patterned paper the title is on. The journalling strips are inked in SU's chocolate chip ink.

Also, this is a scrap lift of Erikia Ghumm's 'Follow the Signs' lo in the October 2009 issue of SBE.

This last lo is my take on the 'do you kiva' made in minutes lo in the August 2010 SBE issue.

Last summer, while visiting my parents, Addison stood in roughly the same spot in their yard, doing exactly what she's doing in the pictures in this lo. Both of the girls were enamoured with water right from the first moment; the bird bath draws them like metal to a magnet. I was sitting on their deck steps, watching Addison from my perch, and I couldn't help but step back in time, and think of this past year, all the changes she (and we) have been through, and how much better things are now. Not only that, but my baby isn't a baby anymore! I'm a bit devastated...

I added pop dots to the title sticker (pop dots were already on the butterfly) to help them stand out a bit more, and decided after I'd gotten everything adhered to the blue card stock, that it would be nice to stamp lines onto my lo rather than draw them on with a pencil and go back to erase them after I was done journalling. (Nobody has to know that the stamp I used is actually a recipe stamp!! I rubbed out the inked 'recipe' portion of the stamp for this particular project). My journalling was written with Recollections Citron journalling/shading pens.

129* happy accidents
130* SBE (even though they are no more)--and for those that don't know what SBE is or what it stands for, its only my most favourite magazine on the face of the planet: Scrapbooks Etc.

Yes, the magazine that holds (edit: held) the key to my scrap happy heart <3

131* white ink
132* good, steady rain over the last two days
133* batteries to make things work
134* freshly washed bed sheets
135* summertime swimming lessons!
136* and the credit on our account over at the leisure centre (which will pay for said summertime swimming lessons!)
137* pretty, decorative keys
138* (every time I see this number, I stop: its my parents' address number)
139* growth

"First Home"

Their grandma and I were in the trailer cleaning it up, and daddy brought miss Addison down when she woke from her nap. I asked her as she was coming into the trailer if she remembered this place, and you know what she said?

"First home".

This is the first home she remembers. And, I'm astonished she even remembers this was her 'first' home.

In reality, her first home was in Saskatchewan, but she was too little and new to remember that. We didn't live there long enough for her to remember it. Which is why I feel its so important to bring the girls back there one day and show them the place they were born and lived for the first year of their lives. A part of my heart is always going to hold that place dear.

After it was all cleaned up, and it was ready for its very own photo shoot, the first thing that overwhelmed me when I walked into it to snap a few pictures, was that this was home. It will always be the first place Kyle and I lived together. Then, it will always be the place that we lived when we moved back to Alberta. This trailer began and ended here in this beautiful province.

And, I'm happy she remembers it. So she doesn't forget it- and so her sister doesn't forget it- this first home (for all four of us) will be scrapbooked. Its an important piece of our familial history!!

124* the fifth wheel
125* the apartment
126* both our houses (old and new)
127* Regina
128* pof.com

To Do

Its been a busy weekend around here, so far. Plants- like petunias, geraniums, marigolds, blah, blah, blah, were on sale, and I wanted to go and pick some up. (I did). I got some of them planted today, and then ran out of planters. Apparently I bought more flowers than I had room for in the planters I already had. Ooops. (The petunias were a really great deal- $6 for a 6 pack. I'm not sure I've ever come across anything like that!!)

Today, we went back, and bought a couple deep planters, and I'll put the rest of the flowers in there. They are so deep, though, that I don't have enough soil to fill them. (A slight oversight on our part). Kyle said that he'd go back to work tonight and pick up some gravel for me. We'll put some of that in the bottom of the planters, and then cover it with soil, and then plant my flowers.

(On a side note, how do you like the sidewalk that leads right into the fence? Pretty ingenious, huh? I think it was there before the fence was, and whatever was on the other side of the fence was probably used as a parking pad or something. Why else would there be a sidewalk that leads to nowhere? IMHO).

That's great, but I have a feeling it won't get done until tomorrow. Just because my husband moves so quickly on things. The amount of flowers I bought shouldn't take two days to plant, but I'm pretty sure that's how its going to play out. Oh well. I'm sort of thinking it might even be a little too early in the season to be buying and planting flowers anyways. In this northern climate, you can just never be too sure.

Especially considering its May long weekend. In my experience, the weather during this weekend is almost always cold. And, just to prove me wrong, so far, this weekend hasn't been too bad. We've had some rain, but the weather otherwise hasn't been really cold. (This coming from the girl that's started wearing her fleece jammies to bed (again) the last couple of nights because she just can't warm up. OH- and I should mention: socks, too. And, this coming from the girl that will wear flip flops until there's 2 feet of snow on the ground). Ha. That list could go on, actually, but I'll stop it there. I'm just a walking, talking oxy-moron!

Plants weren't the only thing we picked up for the house. We also bought a retractable screen to put in the patio door. I'm pretty excited about it. It will be like a patio screen door, but its 'invisible' when you don't want to use it, and when you do, just pull it out from the door jam, and it keeps the bugs and creepy crawlies out! Yay--no more flies in my house! We also need to invest in a screen for the window in the kitchen. Kyle swears there's one here, but I'm not too sure. I've never seen it.

We've also sort of tackled the garage again. When we moved in, I didn't get everything unpacked. We left everything in the garage, rather than paying for anymore storage, and I quickly got overwhelmed by the amount of junk that we've been hanging on to for the last five years. Seriously, there's so much of it (and all of it hasn't been missed), I don't know where to begin. Neither does Kyle. Most of it is his. And, mixed in with all that junk are still a few things that I would like in the house. The trick is finding them!

And, some of it we did. I am soooo excited about them! It was like going shopping and coming home with a bunch of freebies! The two pictures are actually a wedding gift from a dear friend, and the wall-hanging is a gift from another very dear friend. Honestly, I forgot all about these pictures, but I'd been thinking of that wall-hanging for quite some time. I was honestly hoping that we'd find it rather soon. Yipee! We did! And, as I speak, husband is out and at it again- trying to clean up the garage and get rid of some of the clutter and junk. (I'm in the house waiting for the kids to decide their bath time is over. They like staying in there for as long as they possibly can!)

And, the 'to do' list for this summer just keeps getting longer and longer. Tomorrow we're going to clean out and up the fifth wheel, and try and get it sold. Its sat for the last 6 months (since we're no longer living in it), and we have no use for something so large. I think its going on Kijiji. We also have plans to strip and re-paint the deck and fence in the backyard. Both are in serious need of repair! I want to rip out one of the flower beds in the backyard- it was just weeds, anyways, and the other 'flower bed' is going to have to be ripped out too, I think. Its just grass growing in it, and I can't pull it out! It was nearly impossible.

What are your summer plans?

111* long weekends
112* finding long lost treasures!
113* Dr. Pepper
114* sb.com
115* my new patio table umbrella
116* the new umbrella base (so that the wind doesn't blow away and break another one! ooops...)
117* property taxes are included in our mortgage
118* vacuums
119* dishwashers
120* having pancakes every day off Kyle has
121* family traditions
122* being able to create new ones!
123* home