good weekend

How was your weekend? We enjoyed lots of good fresh outdoor time together! The girls were on a ladybug hunt gathering them from the leaf piles that daddy raked up and trying to give them a safer place to live...so we made ladybug houses together, it was so nice to be outdoors with the kids doing something creative. you can just see their little minds working as they are choosing the right ribbons and buttons and throwing in their little suggestions of how we should put things all together. I Love it! I posted the steps to make them with pictures here.

We had a nice breakfast with Cam's parents too which is always such a treat ( both the good eats and the good company!) Our little family is so on-the-go all week that I am finding weekends just make me breathe a little deeper. They refresh me to go for it all over again

oh and today is the last day to check this out:

Deann and Shanah are a blast they are so funny and they spotlighted my blog challenges on their "dishin the digi coast 2 coast" radio show ( near the end). New ones air every Tuesday. I got a kick out of listening to them and was totally thankful for some of the cool products that they pointed out as well. It is worth a listen for sure!

I am looking forward to seeing what this week will hold, have a happy Monday!

creaeeeeemy!

My crazy baby is at it again! this girl is gonna be quite the crafter I tell you. she is loving to get her hands dirty these days. And she is so fast!!! I have no hope of catching her before she finds herself a new medium to create with LOL! Today she was "painting" her little stool with toothpaste, her hands were coated and she was delighted with her creation. This past weekend she went up to Emy's room with her and while Emy was looking away to set up a little checker game Bella thought she could use some of Emilea's cream! ( see photos!) not just a dab though, she dug in and felt extremely beautiful becoming "creaeeemy" I LOVE this kid. We all get such a laugh from her little antics. What fun it must be to dig in and discover all of these textures for the first time. I would just love to be 2 for a day!!!

Here is a layout I did last month about her getting into Emy's lipstick ( my blog challenge was to centre the focal point and add a photo story)

sharing

sharing happiness. I love to do it. No matter what is going on in your world, when you take the bit of extra time to care, to smile, to make a difference in someones day it bounces right back to you and fills your heart every time. My mom used to always tell me "what you put out comes back your way". It sure does. Smart lady that mom of mine :) You know, we are all just too busy these days, really. And it is far too easy to just be busy being busy. stopping just long enough to share some happiness blesses me a hundred times more than the person I stopped for every time guaranteed!!! So Lovely.

I was busy myself tonight, I have worked all night on some fun things for CK and Cam will start his work day later tomorrow so I can get some sleep , just one of the ways we are making things work for our family. In the quiet of the wee hours I always get thinking so these these are my 4 am thoughts and some purple flowers from our trip to Niagara Falls! forget scrapping challenges for this post, my challenge to you today is a different one...stop and share some happy with someone in your world.

DVD filming week

As promised here is a little tour of my filming week in Minneapolis

The set!....so pretty

We filmed at a local store called Artsy Tartsy. Julia, The owner stopped by and we got a photo. She was really nice

getting ready for the next segment. organizing projects , reading over my notes etc.

Lovely PAs Robin and Sarah. They have been totally amazing to work with! I even got to join Robin out for soup one night with her huband and baby girl

and these are my camera peoples, Bob and Dave. really nice guys

The whole thing was a lot of fun, I can't wait to see how it comes together! come on over here to see my little behind the scenes video. I know, I am silly, but the kids loved the "tour"

ETA: just for you miss Amanda Dykan; my hair is au natural LOL!!!

gallery updating

I haven't added layouts to my galleries since before Christmas! yikes, guess it's about time hey?! here is a few from some of my past CK blog challenges

this challenge was to scrap "just for fun" , I just had to have fun with this photo of Emilea slipping backwards off of her sled, she was SO surprised! lol! a sneak-peek at a couple of my CK fonts coming soon, there on the photo.

this was a challenge to " dress up your stash" I had these slide mounts sitting here forever and just didn't know what to do with them...a little dressing up and they made the perfect little frames for my photos and jounaling.

side note: wow I can't believe how Tiara had changed since last summer!


and this challenge was to let a special photo speak to you. hidden journaling is here
I can't get enough of these Kraft papers from making memories! Love em

I'll keep adding more pages as I have some time :)

happy Thursday

and...

I almost forgot to share the featured layout by Amy Martin for our last challenge to scrap asymmetrical! I love her example of good off-centred scrapping, her cute cute daughter, the cluster of goodies around the photos and awesome white space on the left! this page just makes me happy!!! way to go Amy :)

like to sew?

we're talking about stitches this week on my CK blog challenge. both digi and real...a bit of a hybrid challenge. I've put up some links to my favorite digi stitches and a new layout. come and play!!!

funny baby

Kaiella is 2 1/2 and I am happy to report she has a well in tact sense of self worth LOL! this little conversation we have been having makes me giggle...takes me by surprise each time

me: "You are such a special girl!"

Bella: "yes I am!" ...."and wonderful!!!!" said in her little sing song toddler voice like there is nothing she could be more sure of in the world

how great for this little girl to feel so very sure that she is totally special and wonderful! Got to just keep building that up and storing it in her little heart for all of the years where it will really make a difference to feel important and loved :)

note: the red bump on her head was fresh from walking into the kitchen wall LOL! self esteem is fine, now we just have to work on coordination!!!

Happy Easter!

Just sharing a few happy little Easter faces!

Sending out our wishes for an Easter weekend filled with blessings and good times with people you care about doing what makes you happy :)

We had a nice dinner with Cam's family on Friday, and supper with my family today. Our girls all enjoyed the hunt for goodies on Sunday morning and even Bear got an extra long walk with the whole family! It was good. Pretty low key this year, we all needed that, and so it was just perfect.

I got back on Thursday night from a week of filming in Minneapolis. It was so nice to have all those little " mommmy!!!!!" voices all greeting me at the airport. I sure love those warm squishy little girl hugs. I'll have to load my photos from the trip and write about that too ( I did have a wee bit of adventure along with the fun, but that is another post)

it's good to be back, good to be loved, good to be feeling thankful for such great friends and family :)

a guiding hand

We have had a nice spring break week. The girls have really enjoyed being all together. This has got to be one of my favorite sister moments though. We went for a really great visit with our little friends Ella and Ben and the kids spent some time getting totally drenched splashing in puddles, I looked up to see, as I often do, Emilea being such a loving and sweet big sister to little Kaiella; guiding her through the puddle after Bella had fallen and gotten soaked. What a good feeling it must be for little Bella to have this wonderful older girl who loves her so dearly right there to be her guide and be her friend. It is these moments as a mom that are so rewarding.

show you care!

If you haven't already seen this, please head over to Ali Edwards blog and see what she is doing right now!

for the benefit of my family and non-scrapping friends: Ali is a well known scrapbooker who has become my friend over the past year. She is not only a talented artist but someone who always takes the time to make a difference. Her son Simon has Autism and she talks very openly about their journey on her blog. It was because of Ali's openness , and her willingness to take time and be a friend that we were able to learn as much as we have about Tiara's sensory issues. I had written to her awhile back when we felt so lost and had no idea what was going on with this girl of ours; Something in her description of a tough day with Simon struck home with me and our journey to finding answers began. She took the time to write to me about sensory integration disorder and recommend books etc. It was the first I had ever heard of this but when I looked further into it I just knew we were finally on the right track, it was like reading the description of my own child.

Ali has been such a key player in raising Autism awareness, reaching so many people through her role as a well known "scrap celebrity" Her latest endeavor is just amazing, she has been participating in "six degrees" by raising funds for autism speaks. As I write this she has raised $42, 198 and it is still going up. She has reached the goal of having 2000 wonderful people take the time to show they care. WOW! I am just all emotional as I write this. WOW. You can make a donation through the badge on her blog ( which is now set up for international peoples like me!) today is the last day to join in and make a difference! please please show you care :)

C.O.Y?

I love this! I just came down to find my girls really busy making all kinds of little projects. Then I heard Emilea announce the craft of the year contest lol! She was telling her sisters "mommy won scrapbooker of the year, now one of us has the chance to win craft of the year, so just hang in there and keep making because the judging will start in one hour" The two little ones were all motivated to create even more :) I am anxiously awaiting the announcement of the winner!

have a great Tuesday, take the time to stop and breathe in the fresh spring air :)

hi

Just a few pics from our super fun day out at our good friend Tess's place last week. The kids had so much fun together, we played and baked and were outside for hours!

It has started melting out, the air has a new warm fresh spring smell, and the birds are coming back. I have been loving having the window open a crack to hear the happy chirping and smell the fresh air, spring is my favorite! Such a time of renewal :) The kids are starting spring break today, I am so looking forward to this week with them. Cam is heading out to Toronto on Friday for some training for work, and I am getting ready to head to Minneapolis in a week for a few days of DVD filming! Fun stuff. Have a great week

answering questions...

...over a creamy cup of hot chocolate at CK! If you left a question in the last post or were interested to read any of the answers, come on over!

creating

I love drawing and coloring and cutting things out, I love sewing and painting and making a nice big mess doing it all! that is what I am up to tonight; working on a layout for July and just totally enjoying the playing and creating with my hands. Then there are times when I completely love reducing and re-sizing my images, duplicating layers and playing with the science of good shadows. I really enjoy the way digi scrapping lets me work with my mind. This is why most often I mix it all up and scrap hybrid. The best of both worlds I like to call it :)

I have been getting quite a few sweet emails in the past couple of weeks asking me how I do what I do; the way I print my layouts, how I mix things up etc. and I was thinking maybe it would be best of I give some of those answers here. So if you have any hybrid questions for me, throw 'em in the comments of this post! I will gather up my emails and anything else that comes up here by Friday night and get answering as well as I can!

here's to happy creativity!

working through

sometimes pages take work to be wonderful. They just do. Luckily there are those that almost do themselves which is always simply thrilling. But it seems to me that it is the ones that I have to fight through a bit, and really think about, that end up being the best of all. I am learning ( especially with my paper scrapping where I can't "undo" in a click ) that it is alright to make mistakes, as long as you look at it as an opportunity to take your page in a new direction! happy accidents right? Today my friend Kristie is babysitting the two littlest girlees so that I can get some work done during normal daytime hours ( thank goodness for my sweet pal!) So I am working right now on one of these "tough" pages for July's latest & greatest column. I am completely excited about the product I am working with, but for some reason I'm really fighting with my design. And one big all too eager brown paint blob last night has forced me to cut it up a little and re-think things. Just a chance to do something even better I guess. It can be a little frustrating while you're working through that "ugh" part, but then come this moment right now where a few little changes and it all comes together perfectly! better than you had imagined it would! Hooray!!! I Love that. I've been here many times and it is so worth pushing through to get to a great end result. I just wanted to share my happy victory ( can't show, it but look for it in July ;) and encourage you to push through those tough pages. It's worth it in the end! have a great Thursday friends :)

this week featuring...

Kim! her layout for my "get centred" challenge was just stunning! For that matter most of the layouts in her gallery are too, check out her gallery link here . So much really great scrapping happened with this challenge, I was just blown away. I am hoping to see even more inspiration this week ;) ( rah rah rah!!!)

We are talking about photo placement all month. The new challenge is up; still leaving things centred but this week we are adding a photo story. to find out more come on over

I am slow

yep, I am, just plain slow. I have always been aware that I take longer than most people to do a page or work through a project around the house. I take time to really think and play around and enjoy what I am working on in the moment. And besides that I am just a pretty easy-going girl, I don't like rushing and hustle bustle, I love just living life. really living right here and now. But now that there are deadlines to meet for the magazine and people counting on me to sometimes get things done quickly I am becoming more aware of just how slow I really am ( especially during cold & flu season with 3 little girls who need some extra huggin'). I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing, it is never that I am putting anything off or just farting around. The truth is I truly LOVE the process! I love to take the time to pour my heart into my layouts and allow them to almost take a life of their own, moving things around and trying different things, one thing leads to another until everything just seems to come together, like finishing a puzzle. And when I have the time to reach that "done place" I love it and I am proud of the heart that went into my art. I have been contemplating the benefits of auto pilot these days though, y'know the ability to just work fast and do a pretty good job of putting things where they look fine even if it is not a proud work of art in the end, just because it has to be done. I guess there is a time and a place where I will have to just do it, but I don't think I ever want to take the heart out of what I do. Enjoying the whole process is what makes me passionate about my art, without my heart in it, it is not mine...just stuff on some paper that looks pretty. I sure wish I could learn to pour out that passion a little faster sometimes though lol! just been thinking.

today

I worked through the night last night, sure feelin' that today but it's OK. It's not something I do all of the time but I find peace in the wee hours, I can hear myself think, and when inspiration is flowing I don't dare shut down the shop! Thank goodness for my sweet friend Kristie she is picking up Emy from school today, and I get a babysitting day this week to work during normal people hours lol! a good thing.

Tiara got a new big girl mattress this weekend ( a nice squishy sealy pillow top from Costco) so we all spent some time re-arranging her and Emy's room yesterday. yep, all 5 of us in one little room, it was fun, and they love it! Tia and Kaiella are laying together on her new bad head-to-head writing songs and singing at the top of their lungs right now. I walked by just as Tia was saying " hey that was a really good one Kaiella!!!" They make me happy. Perfectly delightful adventurous little people who just light up our home. How lucky am I

I was just thinking this morning how great it is that we are going into a fresh new week in a fresh new month, It makes me feel excited for the possibilities that are just waiting to happen.

get centred

My CK blog challenge for this week is up. It is about working around a centred focal point. No new layout from me yet, as this one is proving to be a good challenge for me too. That is one of the fun journeys about scrapping. Some pages almost scrap themselves they come together so easily, as if taking on a life of their own. And other times it takes work and thinking, especially when trying something out of the ordinary. But when I take the time to stick with it and work it through I end up with something I love, and it feels so good to have pushed through instead of just sticking with the same ol' comfy box I am quite happy in. LOL nothing wrong with staying in your box, it is great to know what you do well and what your own style is. But it is also great to grow and push out of the box too.

I should have my layout up by tonight, hope to see some familiar faces and some new friends coming to play this week!

featured LO over at CK

This week on my CK blog I am featuring this layout by em_skrpbkmom! She chose to dress up a template, a great thing to dress up! Templates (both paper and digi) can give you just the perfect foundation to start a layout while you still have plenty of room to create the page with all of your personal flair! Check out her gallery here for a closer look at this page and be prepared to be wowed! What a talented scrapper, I just had to open every layout in there!!!

I love discovering new favorite scrappers this way, it is such a treat to stumble on a totally inspiring gallery. I have found so many new favorites just from the ladies who have come to play with me. I will have a new challenge posted by tonight, and I'll leave a quick note here when I do

just a note...

...to let you know today is the last day of my "dress it up" challenge over at CK. It's a fun one about giving the items in your stash a new life. For my layout I dressed up some old slide mounts I have had hanging around here. if you have some scrapping time to play before the end of the night I hope you'll come over and play with me there:)

the beginning

These few pictures I took during Tiara's last appointment at Children's Hospital mean a lot more to me than two kids smearing foam on a mirror. They mean answers...a beginning. This is only the beginning of our journey to help Tiara deal with her world. We have started Occupational Therapy and they do all kinds of sensory stuff with her. Lucky for Kaiella she gets to do it all too! She keeps asking if we can go to "Taara's pointment" I am glad they make it so much fun, even though Tiara is pushed to do things that are uncomfortable for her, it is done in such a "safe" way that she can cope alright with all of the activities. Today I am thankful for beginnings. A new beginning is filled with so much hope and promise. What are you thankful for today?

I also just want to say thank-you again for all of the amazing comments that were sent to me after my last post about Tiara's sensory issues. I had no idea that so many other people out there were dealing with this. It's good to know we are not the only ones :) have a happy day!

she's 8!!!

My oldest baby girl somehow turned 8 yesterday, how we got here is beyond me she was just 4 years old and then whooosh here before me is this amazing young lady who is totally beautiful inside and out :) She insisted that she would be bigger when I picked her up from school than she had been in the morning. heehee I love kids so so much! she handed out these cupcakes ( below) to her class to celebrate; rings for the girls and gummies for the boys. When I went in at the end of the day to see how it went all of these little second grade kids had chocolate crumbs and icing on their little faces and passed me on the way to their lockers saying " thanks for the cupcakes Mrs. Muckosky" and " I loved my cake, Emy's mom" I had to giggle, they didn't need to say a word to thank me, the evidence was all over their sweet faces lol! I LOVE it!

some of Emilea's good friends were eager to jump in for a quick pic. I could really tell that they had all made her feel like the most special birthday girl

and of course her sisters tried in their little ways to make the day special...well Tiara did anyways. Kaiella actually tried with all of her might to hijack it lol! Every time we have had a card or gift for Emy to open, and even when it has been time to sing and have cake she jumps in with "it is MY birthday... I am a grown up now" we keep telling her it will be another time for her special birthday, but she is convinced that she has left 2 years old in the dust. LOL!

We went out to Boston Pizza with our really good friends Kris and Kristie and their three boys to "party" and she got to stand up on her seat while the staff sang to her and gave her a HUGE brownie for dessert. A good good 8th birthday I would say.

**oh and I have to add a quick note for our family: she really enjoyed opening gifts and cards that were sent from some of the grandparents and friends, so thank-you guys very much for your kindness it really made her feel loved from every corner of the globe!

hi

hello there and happy Friday ( said with a *whew!* at the end) the week always seems to zip by too quickly but I am happy to see Friday come just to know that the whole family will be together for the weekend. what do you like about Friday? tell me, just for kicks :)

quick note to let you scrappy folks know that there is a new color challenge posted for this week on my CK blog come on over and play!

I'll be back later today to load my photos and get some happy moments posted from valentines day. have a good one

my valentine

this is him.

my valentine

my bestest friend

the greatest Love of my life

he is my voice of reason in the hard times

and my giggles in the sad times,

he is my party just about anytime

this is my Cam

and he rocks my world every single day :)

Happy Valentines Day! :)

cool scrappy learning!!!

I just wanted to share a great tutorial video for learning to type on a path in photoshop. HERE this is one of my favorite cool techniques and goes great with the CK blog challenge for this week to get creative with the shape of your journaling. Have fun!

a great big GOD

There is this catchy song that my kids sing at church and it says " my God is a great big God...and he holds me in his hands" I just had to snap this photo through the airplane window with my little cell phone and pray that it turned out! Looking down over the wing as I flew from Colorado to California on this clear sunshiny day was one of those moments that takes your breath away. As I looked below at this beauty and wonder how could I not know without a doubt that my God truly is a great BIG GOD!!! The same God who created these mountains, and painted the sky so very blue watches over me. The same God who sprinkled that powdery soft snow and dotted the sky with sparkling stars holds me in his great big hands. When life gets tough this is something I try to remember, oh how good it feels to be held safe by someone so very mighty.

creative journaling challenge

finally back to weekly challenges on my CK blog, this week I shared a new layout and we are talking about being creative with your journaling shapes. Lots of fun! come on over and and play with me!!! I will chose someone to feature on the site who really embraces the spirit of the challenge

our good friend

A big happy welcome to our good old friend Bear!!! I love this big guy so very much. We adopted Bear from the animal shelter when he was just under a year old. There has always been a beautiful peaceful spirit behind those big brown eyes. Then Tiara was born premature and Bear, being almost 2 and a half was still such a pup and SO big. We had to make the tough choice to give him up, two babies with lots of needs was just too much. We were so happy when our good friend Kimber took him in and Bear became a very important part of her family. Now almost 5 years later Kimber is moving and for the moment has no place for this sweet boy. So we are dog-sitting for awhile!!! He is just a delight, and has been really good for Tiara , the other girls just adore having him here too, but the effect he has had on her day today was pretty special. We had a fun family day welcoming our pal Bear. We even all went outside a few times with him for a big run in the back field although it has been about -43c! ( my calculator says that is -45 F) So funny a few people were asking me when we were in California, how we even go outside in weather like that LOL! I kept telling them, it's OK, just our eyes are uncovered. So I took a couple of pics today to share the bundle :)

this is how we do it! lots of happy fun

new day

just a quick note to say thanks for the emails. After our day yesterday We dicided to forget about trying to get to preschool or gymnastics and just stay in for some good quality time. Tiara and I are having a lovely day cuddling and drawing together. thank goodness for fresh new days :) lots to smile at !

have a great weekend

feeling the tough stuff

I don't say very much here about Tiara's troubles but some days, like today, are just really tough. Tiara has severe sensory issues and deals with some crazy anxiety these days. Not every day is like today but I am just left feeling emotionally drained at the end of it all. We started our day when Cam moved a towel in the bathroom and she just lost it completely ( this is not out of the ordinary) she really needs to know what to expect and where things will be, needs to feel in control of her environment. We deal with at least one crazy screaming fit every day. Today was different, today was intense all day long. After the towel incident was resolved ( 15 minutes of screaming on her part followed by 10 minutes of holding and talking while she cries softly) it was the feeling of her clothes that set things off ( panties had no bow and the outfit was different than yesterday) and all kinds of fears and worries about the appointment we were going to ( which we were a half hour late for of course), then her seat belt on her stomach, followed later by her ballet suit feeling wrong and being afraid about going to dance class , and on the way there nothing was right ( she couldn't go into her class so Kaiella and I danced instead...got to try and make the best of things). I Love this little girl so incredibly much and it is so so hard seeing her struggle through life like this. This is so intense.. And if it is exhausting and emotionally draining for me, I can't imagine how it feels to live inside of her body. I have always been up for challenges in parenting, they make me a better mom and a better person. But today this is hard, today my heart is so sad. Thanks for letting me share my day honestly. To learn more about sensory integration dysfunction you can read here or Google it. There is a lot of information out there. We are only beginning the journey to find answers.

on the radio!

I had so much fun last month with the ladies at Disc talk radio doing an interview for their hullabaloo show. Pattie had all kinds of scrappy questions for me, and we had a great chat after the interview was over too. Come for a listen and get to know me better! the link is here : you just have to register and listening is free. I am in the second half hour of the show! a BIG thanks to Deann and Pattie for a fun visit :) if you get the chance to explore the site over there I know they have some really nice goodies for becoming a member and there are a lot of really inspiring interviews to listen to!

have a lovely day my friends!

Emy's adventure

check out Emilea's CHA adventure HERE....she loved it!

one hot day!

We were so happy to get some really nice hot weather for our last day in California. Emilea had asked to wear capris and a tank top each day and it just wasn't quite warm enough. So she was really thrilled to leave her sweater and pants behind in our room. We ate ice cream outside and went for one more walk to downtown Disney before packing up to head home. It was the perfect end to a perfect trip :) I know I am getting ahead of myself talking about the end of our trip before sharing the beginning but with it being -42C here today this picture of Emy in her summer wear was looking extra lovely to me. Our vehicles may be frozen but our hearts are warm! LOL! happy Tuesday

hey friends

hey there, head over here for more CHA pics and a few thoughts from Phoenix airport. Had an amazing 9 day trip, and glad to be on the way home to my baby girls. I know there is no RSS feed at the other blog YET so I just figured I should keep sending you over until that is up and running! goodnight and happy Monday for tomorrow :)

Hello from CALIFORNIA!!!

Cam, Emilea and I are having a lovely time together here in California. It has been pretty cool out but the sun came out to warm us up today! We watched the parade with Brittany Beattie and her sweet family last night and met up with Leslie Miller and her guys today. Emilea is lovin' all things Disney...the wilder the better for this girl! and the time alone with 2 parents is so great for her. she holds both of our hands and wants to walk all together skipping and swinging arms, telling us over and over "this is a happy happy time!"...so much fun. I will give better CHA and vacation updates on the CK blog, it's a little hard to figure out how to balance both blogs so I will just write all of the good stuff over there until I get a new balance figured out I think. I hope you will come over and join me there.

full of life

My little Tiara, as seen in Scrapbooks etc. nov/dec issue. This photo just says it all! she really is so very full of life. I LOVE this delightful little face. thanks for letting me share :)

Happy day wishes to you

quick note

just a note to let you know that my challenge for the week is up Here with a new layout . This one is about scrapping the people that are so important to us but somehow end up missing from our albums.

Should be an RSS feed over there soon. Have a good weekend!

chat tonight

aren't these cute stamps?! I am chatting over at Designer Digitals tonight 10pm est and Katie is going to be giving these away to those in attendance! Come on over and hang out, it is always a good time with the DD crowd :)

today I Get Over IT !

I have been thinking today about something very important. Pictures. It is just so important to step up and take them! I so often feel like I am being a bother to people and even though I do get plenty of candid shots that capture life around, I pass up the chance to get good pictures of our friends or family members who may not enjoy having a "look up and smile pretty" photo-op. Or I don't simply re-take the one that may not have turned out very nicely even though my digital screen shows me the results right away. I am too concerned about being a pain-in-the-butt. Today is the day I want to Get Over IT! feel free to join me, I guarantee you will never regret having those precious photos. But you will regret NOT having them. Think of your grandparents, cousins, good friends, how many times have you been together and taking photos of maybe the kids or the cake and these very important people end up not there nearly often enough in your photo albums! Look through your files or albums right now, who is missing? Please please join me in making a conscious effort to change this. The time is now, we just don't know how long any of us have to be together.

I am going to be accountable to you all and show you in a month or two all of the wonderful people in my life I have captured forever in photos.

:) smiles to you, enjoy the day!

my snow people!

My girls in front of course and I am pleased to introduce "April" our snow lady. The picture is from last week. This week so far has brought need for hibernation, with the windchill it is -40c ! The van does not want to start at all and it hurts to breathe in deep. Everyone who knows me knows how much I love to breathe in deeply the fresh crisp air, so I am hoping this super extreme cold passes soon. I am working on assembling a list of good answers to some of the questions that have come my way. Some really good thoughts and ideas everyone has for me as well. Tutorials on things like drop shadows for digi scrapping and showing some of the how-tos behind my take on "hybrid" scrapping... etc, fun stuff :) I'm on it! Keep the thoughts and ideas coming my friends!

We have been doing some running around getting everything we need for our passports, not such an easy process. It will be a happy day when I can go and pick them up and check that off of my list. Beginning to think more about preparing everything for our trip to California, I can't believe how fast time seems to be going. I leave in 10 days! WOW! I am really looking forward to this new adventure, I have never been to winter CHA and going there with the wonderful ladies on the CK team is sure to be delightful. then at the end my Cam and Emilea will arrive and I can't tell you how pumped I am to see her reaction to this cool part of my scrapping world ( she's a little scrapper too y'know) I think she's gonna flip out!

happy Tuesday

head's up

just a quick note to let you know that the "feel the moment" challenge for the week is up at my CK blog with a new paper layout. In case you feel like checking it out! come on over and play with me there too :)