Weekend wonderful

I Love weekends...Love Love Love. It is OUR time together; time to forget about work and focus on being a family. Weekends are our time to eat chocolate chip pancakes together and get out in the sun and snow, go for walks , build forts, toboggan. It is our time to work together to clean the house and do other projects we have decided to work on as a family. It's just good and rejuvenating for all 5 of us. Today we were outside getting rosy cheeks as we headed down hills on our toboggans, our ever-faithful Bear was thrilled to run alongside with his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. Emy went for the jumps and the fastest runs she could find and the little two were pretty content to roll down or run and slide on their tummies like penguins. Good good fun!

Happy weekending!

new goodie time

Time to share what I've been making for this month. the first two here are in my little Dreamer store Above is a new stamp set of magical bubbly swirls that can be overlapped to build your own look or simply used on their own to add a touch of whimsy to your layouts. And below is is a happy alphabet painted on canvas and bent and cracked for some added yummy texture! These print out really nicely on plain or textured cardstock and can be cut out to add to paper projects over and over again.

And here are a couple of the guest goodies that I added to the jan BYOC kit over at the Lilypad.
Both of these are just some of my usual little touches to add a bit of carefree art to your projects!
the first is made with waxy art crayons and the second with faber castell markers of different thicknesses.
Happy creating!

Happy Birthday little Tia!!!

My sweet little angel is seven years old today.

Right exactly now she...
-Loves animals and wants to be a vet when she grows up
-draws, paints and colors all of the time and also wants to be an artist
-does her own braids without looking
-is learning to read
-Loves her new baby doll "Joy"and takes her everywhere
-Is a little mama hen to both her big and little sisters
-Helps mommy and daddy willingly and happily whenever we ask
-Just learned how to ice skate and is very proud of herself
-Has come so far in a year and we are so so proud of her.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!!!

3 Am creative babble

Creativity is a funny thing the way it comes and goes, sleeps and wakens at it's own pace and in it's own time...as if it has a mind of it's own while at the same time being so very much a part of a person. Something that you can't predict and cannot control but always welcome back when it decides to show up after a time away, no matter how brief.

For me it may stir as the need to get back out of bed at 4 in the morning and get my hands in paint and all kind of bits. Whatever little this and that I see around me inspiring ideas and becoming bits of what I am creating and the story that is unfolding...I sometimes watch as if my hands are moving on their own as it takes shape in front of me...I let it happen and watch...curious and interested to see where it will go, where this storm of art is headed.

It is these times, when I don't try to control what I am making, when I forget about the end result and just bask in the life of the art, in the beauty of creating, that I do my favorite pieces.

It is when I just let go and allow it to unfold.

When I create I am alive to the very most inner parts of myself, and in a way that is different than any other part of my life and who I am. It is something that I need to do, something I need as much as cold water and fresh air...it is how I am made, who I am.
So I guess I have finally found the words for what I want this coming year.
I want to find a new outlet for this art that is so much a part of me, something that requires no thought and I can just go with when the urge strikes me.

Working on that.

catching the Big one

Sometimes I can write forever and I do get quite windy, it just comes spilling out. And other times, like now, I sit and think and I simply cannot really capture the spirit of amazing unconditional friendships and the times that we share in any sort of words.
So here you go, summed up in a few photos; is our evidence of one of many seriously AWESOME days with some of the greatest friends in the world...

We took the girls and jumped in the van for a little road trip to finish up winter vacation just right. We had an amazing time away with our good friends Krista and Braden and their little guys Ice fishing in the beautiful Q'uappelle valley this past week. I used to go to camp there every summer and this is seriously one of the most beautiful places to just be and breathe it in.

It's a totally different scene out on the frozen lake drilling holes in the frigid cold, but still super super beautiful. The kids had such a blast doing this all for the first time. Making the holes, clearing them out and keeping them clear (it was soo cold that the holes were freezing back up really quickly), making a fire to roast lunch and keep warm, hugging new slimy friends ( see Emy above LOL) and being a general buncha monkey heads (of course referring to me)
Uncle Braden is now even more of a hero than he already was to them!... thanks man!It is so so good to have friends that have been around since days of young, and you know will be around till you're wrinkly, no matter what may come.
So so good.

Happy New Year!!!

We always find something super fun to do together to start the year out right, it is kind of a tradition. This year it was skating on the lake. There is nothing quite like it, SO cold, but so much fun! Looking forward to many things for 2009.
I don't really have words for them all yet but they are stirring.
What are you hoping for/looking forward to this year?
May you have a fabulous start to what I hope will be to be a fabulous year for you all.

I leave you with Dad and Daughter skating off into the glow of the setting sun.
xo

little singer

I loaded our little camera into the computer today after the house had gone to bed, and I sat and watched every single little video that we took over the holidays. Even though I am with them everyday, I just had to stop and marvel at my wonderful girls.These little people of mine are THE BEST! Adorable and sweet and thankful and kind....sigh.... I just couldn't have three better girls in my life.

Little Kaiella who is usually pretty shy in a group happens to have a real flair for entertaining it seems, and decided to put on a concert for us while we waited to have Christmas dinner. I just have to share, firstly because we miss all of our family who is far away this year like my Dad and his crew and my grandparents, and none of them have seen our littelest one in person since she was a year old... here you go guys!

And secondly because she is still so small and squishy-cute and I just love the way she says her little words "we're so glad that you're WISS us" in the first song (that she sang all over town this December after learning it at preschool LOL), and the way she says "put your hoooooff in..." when she sings the reindeer-pokie and ends it with her own little "Doo-Dee-boo!"
Go Bella!!!

Merry Christmas

A Christmas card to you all from all of us.

Wishing you many many Blessings, and lots of good eats and happy together times.

See you in a week or two

More goodies

It has been pretty crazy busy around here, lots on the go and I don't even want to re-hash it here. We are just running with it and enjoying the process of finding the perfect little somethings to express our Love for people this Christmas. Enjoying the visits and the outings, and the little girlies in little Christmas dresses. It has begun my friends, and this is one of my favorite favorite times of year to sit back and take in the Joy of my wonderful family and the beauty of the season. LOVE it!
I wish the same for you and your people in the next few weeks!

In other news, there is more creativity going on around here and more new goodies to share!

In my store at Little Dreamer in time for ChristmasThis Quick Design pack is good to go and ready to just drop your photo in behind a 5x5 card or use the back as a great starting place for a 12x12 layout. You get both the 5x5 and the 12x12 sizes in the pack. Here is a Christmas card that I did for Maureen and Shayne

A pack of handrawn/colored snowflakes for all things wintry.
this one has all sorts of layers to play with; whites ,multi colored blues, and the doodly outlines, as well as just the straight forward finished product that you can plop right down. A new alphabet...keep an eye out in the new year sometime and I will throw this one into a mega pack with matching lowercase letters and symbols.

and lastly, a few little clay bits for Christmas just because clay is squishy and Kewwwl!A few more guest goodies for the Lilypad too.
Just one pack for Christmas to go in the Dec BYOC kit over there.
I am so not good at doing seasonal/themed kits but these were such a blast to make. Me and the girls are working on pulling the glass out of some small dollar frames in our quiet times together and turning these Woody bits into some cute little framed seasonal art for the house. I will take a pic and share if we finish this year, may not happen. that's just life.
And these...sigh...the product of all of my art edges when I finish a piece that I have been painting. I love the unintentional quality of things that are made...well.. unintentionally! LOL. So I have strips of these hanging all around off the edges of my art island until they find homes on other projects that I am working on. I figured some of the digi/hybrid folks out there may get a kick out of them too!
Sharing a bit more painty goodness over there this month... No layout is complete for me without some splatz and splots of paint, sooooo yummy...so essential!
There you have it,
I will be scarce around these parts for the next while as I enjoy a house full of little girls home with me all day, and the fun of visits and adventures together with so many wonderful peeps over the next couple of weeks.
Life awaits, here I go!
Blessings to you all this Christmas

Colorado in pictures

I am finally getting through some of the photos from our trip to Colorado last month. We had such an amazing time on so many levels. These little girls became such good good buddies in no time at all, as if they had known each other all their lives. It was so nice for Kaiella to make her very own new friends without her big sisters overshadowing her. Don't get me wrong, she loves both of them tons and loves being with them, but both of my bigger girls have such Big personalities, each in their own way they have such a fabulous presence, and this little one is quieter by nature. She just goes with the flow and that can mean she blends into the background sometimes when we get together with friends. Seeing her having such a special time making her own friends and enjoying them so so so very much was really great!
All three of her new little pals have been the topic of MUCH conversation since we got back LOL

Look at these 2 brown eyed buddies! They are only about a month apart in age and personality wise they were a match made in heaven. Such sweet gentle little hearts these two girlies have.

And I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture below of the three pals on our adventure to the garden of the gods Such a breathtaking spot. WOW, I have never seen anything like it, WOW WOW WOW!!! Kaiella's dusty little bum makes me smile, she had such fun climbing and sliding and running around the red rocks and in and out of the nooks and caves.

We managed to get all kinds of great photos taken; posed, candid, everyday life, you name it I shot it! It was a real honor to be able to capture some really precious moments for such good good people. To be honest, it is always something that I find a real privilege. You see so much about people and who they are that you may normally miss when you are able to observe and quietly capture little moments through a camera, I feel like I get to see a bit deeper and I have the opportunity literally within my hands, to give people gifts that are truly 100% priceless.


This one is my fave shot of my good friend; the ultra talented Miss Amy Martin.
She is a gal of many gifts and talents, creatively and otherwise, but most importantly she is one of those rare people in the world who is genuinely good and beautiful inside and out. A true-blue kind of gal.And I got SOOOO many great moments of her sweet sweet littles; the light was good, weather was perfect and of course they are all gorgeous happy little people! Here's just a few quick faves...

I love the way this one quietly captures their Big sis/little bro relationship. mmmm and those sweet chubby little hands clasped together.

And what can I say about this one? It was her idea, her pose, and she is breathtaking.
I picked an outfit and dressed her up and sweet "E" and I went walking on our own adventure taking photos. We had such a great time, I just adore her fun and happy little spirit.
XO to you my little pal, miss you already!Oh to be 4 years old again!
It just makes me grin ear-to-ear the way A's carefree little spirit comes through in these couple of pics below.
This one...well it just reminds me of the great adventure of life that we are all on. It can seem so Huge, and we can feel so very small sometimes, but we've just got to keep on climbing and keep on believing and we are sure to find ourselves in some truly beautiful places. I Love photos like this that speak to me.
Some just do.

Last but not least a few of my little Bella too of course!!!
I LOVED this location, and she was so super cute in her funky little layers that she pulled out of her suitcase
Another one from her big adventure, a rare moment that she was sitting still LOL! I parked her here while I took family pictures, and when I turned around there she was all cute and patiently waiting, just watching me climb around.
Oh, and this one of Bella and her doll "Alice" was a total fluke...just a quick snap while we were outside playing. It is not "technically" fabulous, but one of those pleasant surprises you sometimes find waiting for you when you download a whole whack of pictures.
mwwahhh...sweet little angel girl.

So there you have it, a bit of our time in Colorado in photos; took me awhile to get to them but I am so so happy I got some time to go through a few before we get too super busy with Christmas stuff.
A big thanks to our friends for all of the great hospitality and good good times :)

Some new goodies

Time to share some new goodies again... Here is what I have been making lately.
In my store at Little Dreamer
A new pack of painted canvas accents; I know, I know, it is winter and all...Christmas is around the corner, yes, but flowers in my art make me happy happy happy all year round. And in fact, I think that I need them more when the world is covered in ice and snow. These print out really nicely for use as accents on paper pages or cards. The texture of the canvas is just really yummy the way it gets jiggy with the watercolor paint.
mmmmm.

some teeny alpha stamps because I may possibly be obsessed with little alphabets and red ink/paint.....OK not possibly, I AM obsessed LOL.
This pack has two sets in it; both inked and painted.
And one more set to satisfy my happy creative places, puffy paint and colorful arrows; can't get enuf of either right now so these were born...and I have also added a few more guest goodies over at The Lilypad
These stamps are a fun set of continuous line drawings; I love that they are just carefree and imperfect, made by drawing while your pen doesn't leave the paper. You see this style of art popping up all over in ads and cool places these days and I find it so so inspiring.

And some neutral naturals because I Love to use them.
Totally essential for me and my scraps :)

And that is the way the cookie crumbles.

Rawk on peeps!

-43 degrees: this is how we do it

It's C-C-C-C-cooooooold here lately. Tons of snow and so so bitterly freezing that it hurts to breathe in deeply. I am not complaining, just trying to describe it for all of you warm weather peoples who may never see winter the way we do. Actually the truth is that it just wouldn't be Winnipeg without some crazy super winter at some point between November and March. It's just the way we do it here and we don't mind so much ( well, us Muckoskys anyways, I can't speak for the rest of Winnipeg).
The super cold is not usually quite this early though, this snap kind of took us by surprise, most years it is more like February when we get hit so hard.

Anyways, I was just thinking today how It always cracks me up when I travel around the world and people find out where I am from, most often they want to know all about the winters here in Winnipeg.
The most asked question after "How cold does it get?" is
" How do you even go outside?!!!"
So here is this year's visual for you....snow pants and big boots buried in front yard snow that is well up over our knees, and the rest of us bundled so that just our eyes are peeking out.
Got to get out, got to have fun...so THIS my friends is how we do it!
We had a blast playing outside today a little bit. Not too long but the girls just needed to get out and tumble around a bit and I guess I needed it too. there is something about playing in a yard full of snow that can bring out the little kid in anyone :)

Happy day to you wherever you may be, and a big fat WHOOOOT for Hot Chocolate with whipped cream and a wee sprinkle of cinnamon.

toothpaste monster

Apparently my bathroom sink has been attacked by some crazy toothpaste monster sometime this afternoon. It appears to have snuck into my house and coated the sink with aprox. 2 ENTIRE tubes of toothpaste, some nice bright white and some pretty sparkly blue. hmmmmm....perhaps an attempt at a nice re-decorating surprise??? Kind of like a "while you were out" type of idea? or more accurately a "while you were not looking".
I LOVE HAVING KIDS IN MY HOUSE
LOVE IT to bits!!!
they keep my life interesting and filled with much redecorating
TLC has nothing on us

birthday lovin'

I had an amazing Birthday yesterday, so full of Love from all the amazing friends and family in my life. I am truly Blessed, that's for sure! I was woken up to a great chorus of Happy birthday from my little family and everyone ( including our big ol doggie dog) jumped in bed to start my day with lots of good hugs and cuddles, I did get this pretty bracelet from my sweet girls and lots of adorable handmade crafts. Having Kids who think that your birthday is a national holiday just makes it so much more fun!

Cams parents put on a great little party for me and we had good eats with great peeps...I really couldn't have it any better ( thanks guys!)