Make and Takes and my chalk joy

It was so much fun meeting people and sharing my make and takes with them. Leslie Miller and her little 5 year old Alexander did an amazing job putting together hundreds of make and take kits for me ( thank-you sooo much!) It is a little motivational card that showed off products from all 4 of our sponsors ( HP, Ellison, Legacy crafters, and KI memories) and explores the world of mixing digi and paper scrapping! People seemed to have fun with them and I just had a blast meeting and chatting it up :)

here are a few more sample cards:

I really hope some people will go home and explore new ways of creating, using all of the possibilities of digital, while adding the dimention and texture of traditional scrapbooking. And if nothing else, the quote on the card is one we all need a reminder of sometimes;

" there is great joy to be found here in this moment"

It happens to everyone, we get so busy and caught up in our day that we can just forget to stop and find the joy in the little things. for me right this moment I have these three sisters all playing happily together, Kaiella is sitting in the middle of the coffee table and her, Emilea and Tiara have sidewalk chalked all over it while I was blogging, the big girls are now drawing a ball gown, gloves and shoes on little Bella while she happily enjoys their attention and thanks them every few seconds. lol! I could be totally mad for the chalk all over, but I have got to say THAT is Joy if I have ever seen it!!! I love it! off to get some photos of the body art and my new home decor!

remember today to stop and look around at the great Joy in your life.

Have a Diva Day!!!

On my first day at Memory Trends I had a live radio interview with Diva Danielle and Rayme Royale on the Diva Craft Lounge. They crowned me and everything!!! you can find the links to listen to the show here. My interview is at the end of the first link and the beggining of the second one! Fun stuff!

Day one in Vegas

I don't have more than a few photos of our first amazing day in Vegas including the beautiful reception that CK put on for us ( I am really hoping some of the other SOY girls will share with me! pretty please) but I figure the time has come for me to share some of our Vegas experience on here! It was totally mind blowing to drive up to this huge resort in this BIG flashy city, just the lobby of the Venetian took my breath away!

Check out the ceiling in the entrance hall! Beautiful!

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Since it was about 9 1/2 hours of traveling for us, we arrived and pretty much had only enough time to drop our bags off and quickly take in the sight of our amazing room before running off to meet Leslie Miller, Candace, and all of the girls. I have to say everyone was even WAY cuter in person!!! I loved them all right away. We got bags FILLED with amazing goodies from CK ( including Becky's new family heritage book coming soon and the new creative companion, as well as CKU shirts and "stuff", I have been totally living in the super comfy sweatshirt I got!) Once we had a chance to meet eachother we went off to the balcony at the front of the hotel for a photo shoot with Candace Stringham ( she is totally cute and super nice, not to mention WAY talented! I really enjoyed meeting her) We had such a blast it felt like I had known these girls forever, I was pretty bummed that I had left my camera up in our room, but there were plenty of cameras snapping so there is bound to be some good pics out there for me to snag.

I am trying out Picasa web albums for sharing the bunches of photos I have from the trip, so you should be able to click on the image below to take you to my album and then you can see the photos larger by clicking on one of them in there

SOY reception

The reception was beautifully done! I am so thankful for all of the hard work that went in to making it a really special night for all of us! Cute nametags, Wonderful flower arrangements for centre pieces, and we each had our own table featuring our photo, one of the layouts from our entry and a write-up about us. We each had editors, magazine staff and sponsors at our tables, so we all got a little love :) The food was great and the company even greater! And then Lisa .B called my name as the winner! and I was more stunned and speechless than I have ever been in my life, it was like a dream. You can read more about how I felt in my interview with Erin Lincoln on the CK site Friday ( I think) I will post a link to it when it is up.

What a wonderful whirlwind first day! It is one I won't soon forget, for so many reasons :)

scrap yourself

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I challenge you!
This weeks OTB challenge at Scrapartist was mine and I asked before we left if I could post it when we got home. So my challenge for this week is to scrap yourself. I know, I know, it's not innovative, or exciting, or some Fab new idea...but it is important and all too often left out of our scrapbooks. So please be like Nike and "just do it!" you won't regret it :)

make a layout about what makes you you, your thoughts on something, or a relationship ( with a pet, kid, thing....anything goes!) or a single moment, as long as it is you in there!!! when you have done your "you" layout come and join in posting over at scrapartist in the challenge gallery or leave me a link here in the comments so I can check it out!!!

This is a paper-digi mixed layout of mine, Cam and I sharing a milkshake in Chicago this past summer. The photo was taken by our good pal Amy Martin (alb52). you can see my supply list here.

take two: if just scrapping yourself is not enough of a challenge for you try one of these!
- use stamps to cut out your title
-use your own handwriting ( whether you like it or not)
-alter your photo to create the mood ( tinted here for a retro malt shop feel)

Happy scrapping, my friends!!!

ETA: by all means , please do this in whatever fashion feels good to you, paper, digi, mixed-up, or even as a project. Just have fun exploring "you"

Congratulations ( hi from Cam)

I thought this would be a good time for me to step in and take a shot at this blog thing while giving me a chance to congratulate my wonderful wife. For those of you who don't know me, I'm CD's lucky husband Cam. Over the past year or so I have had the chance to see my wife's passion pour out into this cool new world (For me at least) called Scrapbooking. What a world it is!!! I really can't say enough about how cool Las Vegas was and how great Creating Keepsakes treated everyone (Allowing the hubbies to more than just "tag along" was awesome!) Thanks CK for a wonderful experience.

It truly was a pleasure to meet all the finalists, friends on the show floor, and a bunch of the CK staff. All of you were very friendly and I really enjoyed spending time with all of you : ) Vegas was jaw dropping, but I can't wait to chat with everyone again. I wish you all the best in the future!!!

Alright.... CONGRATULATIONS CD!!! I love you!!! I am so proud to be your husband and your friend. Know that your family, and friends, and ME most of all, are here for you now and forever in the future.

Can you believe it??!!!!!

I am not even sure if I do yet!!!! but here in my hotel room is this sign with my big face on it, and this HUGE cheque for $10,000! So it has got to be real!!!

Okay, rewind...I better explain what I am talking about :) Here I am in Vegas for Memory Trends on this AMAZING trip that Creating Keepsakes sent all 10 of us SOY finalists on, seriously, they have treated us like royalty right down to the details!!! ( Which I am so going to write about when I get home!!) Tuesday night we attended a wonderful wonderful reception with the editors and magazine staff, and the sponsors of the contest, where they honored us all. and then.....announced ME as the new CK scrapbooker of the year!!!!!!! WOW!!!!! I just can't believe it!!!

I am so so honored and thankful and excited more than I can begin to explain. This just means so much for me and my family, and I haven't even wrapped my head around everything that is going to be happening yet. I was oh so Blessed in my life already, so this is really just icing on the cake! A couple of months ago, with lots going on for a few of my family members, I had come to a place of realizing what I already knew; that I don't know what this next year will hold for us all, or the next day for that matter, but God does, he knows what is in store for my family and where I need to be. And I was just feeling that I was not carrying on with this contest hoping to win Scrapbooker of the year, but instead, I had prayed so many times that I would just be where God wants me to be and be doing what it is I am supposed to be doing. So here I am! and I carry on from here with that outlook.....it's gonna be great!!! So many really cool people came to play with me and do make and takes on wed, and thurs. I just love meeting new people and getting the chance to chat! it was totally fun!!! And I have a bunch of photos Cam took that I will share when I am back home

Cam and I are trying to fit in as much seeing Vegas as we can in our two "vacation" days, it sure is nice just to be away together. We walked the strip yesterday and saw Cirque du Soliel at night. He wants to find the Apple store today, and see if our tired little legs will carry us all the way over to see the Luxor and a few of the Hotels over in that direction and if we are lucky maybe another show tonight before we pack up. When I get home I can share some of my pictures, and everything else I have forgotten to write right now. I can't seem to get access to my email from here, so I'll get into that when I am home too!

Can you guys do me a favor please? I have been told by some of the people at the show that there are nice congrats threads and stuff out there in scrappy net land and I don't want to miss any of them in my overwhelmedness. If you know of any and have a minute please leave me a link in the comments so I can go and read em and say thanks :)

I'll be back in two days! thanks so much to CK and all of my new friends for making this week a totally amazing one!!!

ETA: here I am asking for links so I don't miss out on the kind congrats threads out there and I totally missed all of the wonderful congrats right here in the comments on my last blog post!!! :O whooops! thank-you all so so much for all of the kind words, I am all teary reading what has been written to me. It really makes this all the more special :)

One last time

The last ice cream run of the summer!

We all headed out for burgers and ice cream at the Half moon drive in. One last summer outing like that. Needless to say it was really nice to be all together and thourally enjoyed by all! We walked down by the water with our ice creams while the sun was going down , the girls danced and little Kaiella was shouting " Ocean, Ocean!!!!" as she pointed at the lake. LOL!

ETA: we were delighted to find this new soft serve called Dole whip it is dairy free and made with real fruit so Tiara could actually join in having a cone like the rest of us!!!

It has started cooling off fast in the evening , but still getting some pretty hot days here lucky for us! The girls are loving school and little Bella is settling in to her new mornings with just me. I too am getting used to appreciating that quieter time just the two of us.

I have been trying to get everything done that I need to, and start thinking about preparing for our trip to Vegas in October! I still can't believe we are going, and totally can't believe that it is with CK to boot! What a dream! So here is what I am thinking, since Cam and I are trying to decide what to plan for the two extra days we will be there and have no clue where to start, I am asking for your help! Any suggestions? Leave us some comments and tell us what we should see, ok! That should give us a starting place anyways. Thanks :)

happy weekend all

Cherish

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I thought I'd share my newest desktop for September. A little calendar to check on, and the words that mean a lot to me. The photo was from Kaiella's birthday, Cam and I took her out on her own with us and we had so much fun together! All of the goodies on here are from Scrap Artist and Designer Digitals.

I wish you all a great weekend. Over here I have got to try and clean up this house of ours over the next couple of days, just too many piles around. It seems to creep up every now and then when we get too busy. My tendonitis is back in my arm so I am back to working lefty and one handed for the time being. Any of you praying folks could definitely say one for me about that :)

The air was cold and crisp here today but oh so fresh and I am just loving it! I am surprised I haven't sniffed the window screen right up my nose yet!! We all went for a nice walk after French toasts and banana pineapple milkshakes for super, it was so nice to be outside with all of my lovies, and I could breathe it all in as deeply as I wanted with no danger of screens up the nose LOL! Goodnight and God Bless you all

My creative challenge

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ok here's the scoop! I had been putting up a challenge every Monday for awhile and when I hurt my arm it kindof died off. I really want to get some challenges going here again. I just feel that pushing ourselves to try things or see things in a new way is such an excellent way to grow! It is for me anyways :)

So for this week I want to challenge you guys to use your product in an unexpected way to create something new. Tons of freedom to play on this one, that's the idea...Just let go and totally play!!!! I guarantee it is a blast! So my example is this layout I did awhile ago for my little Kaiella right before she was turning two. I used the lacing for grass and the tags as leaves, the circle stamps are my petals and the photo is the flower centre. A growing flower ( like she is...My attempt at being symbolic while having a little fun. supplies are listed Here and the journaling says: my itty-bitty baby is somehow almost 2, I guess that means you are no longer new! but whether you are 2 or 22 you will always be my baby

So I say anyone who is inspired to play along and see where it takes them, post your layout in your gallery and give me the link here in the comments so we can all check it out! Let go of the rules and have fun!!!!! I can't wait to see some cool art :)

Annual backpack pics

Tia; oh so proud! are we gonna have to watch out for that look or what?! look at that face :)
and Emy in her great new sweater from Nana, ready for another year with all of her friends

Here they are all proud and ready to go! and then there is poor little Kaiella really not wanting her sisters to be left at school! she did okay for the first stop dropping off Emilea but then when we were leaving Tiara at preschool she realized that they were both gone and started crying " no leave my Ty-ia!!!" over and over. I assured her that we would get her back and once we got home for a nice muffin she was all good with that lol! it will be a different year for her but I am sure we will find some adventures of her own for her to participate in!

have a happy Thursday :)

beautiful noise

I dropped off both Emilea and Tiara this morning, my first ever morning leaving them both. Emilea; starting grade two thinks she is an old pro, but I still walk her in for the first day and see that she is unpacked and settling in ( and of course snap my quick photo) before leaving with my other little ones in tow as usual. But then, Tiara's turn came next, she was so excited and well prepared for this next step in her little life. Such growth from last year when I couldn't even leave her at Sunday school. She happily went in, hung up her jacket and put on her shoes, then off to a spot on the mats just as if she had done it so many times before. A wave goodbye and Kaiella and I were off. After a great summer of loving the time together the girls had begun to just have enough of each other this last week, just picking on each other and needing some space and more structure. So I was actually looking forward to my mornings with just Kaiella, a time to take a breath and give her some undivided attention. But as we drove home from Tia's preschool the van was unusually quiet, one little 2 year old looking out the window way back there. I got to thinking that while I welcome a few moments of quiet here and there I really do savor their noise LOL! All of those little voices so filled with wonder and new ideas, so much to tell me with such sincerity and innocent honesty. I love this world of mine mom-ing these little people, they really are my gifts! Even when things get hectic and most often somewhat loud, they are a total pleasure. I can't imagine how I will feel when the day comes to drop them all off for the whole day and go home to an empty house. Life evolves and changes and I will too, but I am happier than happy for now to be surrounded by small voices and little hands to hold. This is my paradise. Annual backpack photo to come later!

I think most kids have gone back to school now, I hope you are all settling well into your days. And for those with small ones still at home, please stop today and remember to just savor their beautiful noise it really is precious!

thankful & Happy

I am happy.

happy to be right here right now. The leaves have begun to change and the air is fresh and crisp yet still so wonderfully warm, we have the windows open and the freshness blowing in makes me stop and breathe deeply. I have gotten some cleaning and laundry done today which always feels so good. With the kids rooms tidied and re-arranged I stop to take an Extra long satisfying peek in as I walk down the hallway. And folding the fresh warm laundry makes me feel loving. The kids are so excited about school starting this week; Emilea ever-planning which skirt she should wear on which day and Tia walking around with her new backpack on feeling good about starting preschool ( this is big!) So as I go about the chores of the day and observe my family doing their thing around the house I just feel truly blessed and totally satisfied to be right here, nothing exciting or out of the ordinary has happened but I am just happy to have a special today. Tell me, what made your today special?

peek of perfection

"only a little peek of you at two years old. What I see is pure perfection in the way God made you perefctly you Love, Mama"

This was supposed to be my lift of our guest goddess over at scrap artist; steppedonaleggo, but it ended up being less of a lift and more of an 'inspired by' layout. Her wonderful inpiring layout is found here: http://www.scrapartist.com/gallery/s...;ppuser=1 930 A totally talented scrapper!!! credits for my layout can be found HERE

A swingin weekend

Hello all! I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday weekend. I have to say that I am Sorry for ignoring my blog in the last few weeks, I have had some adventures that I will have to come and write about. But for today I just wanted to say that I am totally glad to be spending this weekend enjoying the Blessings of friends and family, sunshine and the anticipation in the air for school beginning next week. We are not going away, just sticking close to home and getting lots done but it is wonderful just to be all together. Enjoy your time whatever the weekend may hold for you!

Just popping in to say...

Hello from me!!!

Cam turned the camera on me out in the backyard yesterday, nothing fancy just me being me in my house clothes and pigtails, but I'm glad when he does sometimes because all to often I am missing from the story, you know, I take all the pictures and then am not in them.

Was out tonight at my craft night with the Lisas. I always enjoy this crafty , munchy, creative, girl time. It is totally good. Even though I have a ton on the go I just wouldn't miss it! and I went to Dalcrafts on my way (one of our scrapbook stores here) just for a couple of things . Was the first time in a long time, do I ever just love walking around and being surrounded by all that good stuff!!! I just want to get my hands on all of it and play with everything! I almost bought Elsie's new book but I was good and resisted..it will happen...But not today :) I am so tired tonight , been having busy days with the girls, good busy though. Playing school, Emilea writing numbers and words and Tiara is learning to write her name, and trying to tech them to clean up what they pull out, so lots of stopping everything to clean up together. They really play nicely all three of them, which is pretty good considering that 7, 4, and 2 is a pretty big age range for play buddies!

Today I am thankful for answers, and helpful friends, God's love, and good family time, oh and let's not forget craft night!...I am thankful for craft night too

Outside the box with patterned paper

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ok, this week really is my Outside the box challenge over at Scrap Artist! Sorry for the false alarm last week :) I like this challenge I think it is fun, and I wish I did this more often! what it is is cutting shapes from your patterned paper and using them to embelish your layout. you can do this by selecting and removing the background so that only the shapes remain, or by removing the background from only one part by hand ( digitally) and if you're working with good ol' paper then pick up those scissors and get cutting!!! remember to come over and show us your pages in the OTB gallery, and come say Hi in the forum ok?!

I made this anniversary card and cut the flowers out from Lisa cohen's Tropical hideaway paper, all of the embelishments are from Michelle Coleman's Savoir Faire.

An example of cutting away the background and using the whole paper is down below if you scroll to my post called "Thinking Face" where I used the spots to embelish the page.

Hope you join in the fun!!! Happy Sunday

so happy to be swimming at long last!!!

a little visual aid to tell the story

Eyes of observation

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This is a super simple layout I did of Tiara ( I know, I know, gotta get some on here of the other 2!) It has hidden pull-out journaling that says: "your eyes are always watching, observing and taking in your surroundings.You watch from a distance for some time before deciding if you will join in . And sometimes you just decide to participate by observing and that is Okay. Watch as long as you need to, take it all in sweet girl."

I have learnt so much from her how to slow down and be more sensitive, she really has always needed that in her little world. But for me it has been an area of growth in our four years together to learn to stay back and watch with her, and I have taught her to just tell others " I am not ready" when she needs to. I wanted to make her a page to let her know that I love her just for who she is and that it is just fine to be an observer as much as she needs to. I had fun making the flowers and swirls and I am totally loving Katie's new floss stitches! Coming soon over at the Designer Digitals store For a full list of supplies you can check it out here.

yesterday was a dirty grumpy day! The very short version is that we have a pool, didn't ever really want a pool, but it came with this house 3 years ago and needed a new liner so it has been waiting to be fixed. It finally got re-done this year ( a whole big kaffufel that I won't go into ). So yesterday Cam was replacing a few of the lines while the concrete is all broken off still, and I guess something didn't get plugged up right so the very short version is that when he cut the old line there was a Huge amount of water rushing out like crazy! It holds 60,000 litres of water...So there is the two of us, filled with wet mud ( I mean clothes, hair, skin, COVERED!) arm deep in it all trying to stop the water, water is gushing way to fast to stop or bail, adrenaline is pumping, both shaking, praying Hard!! For sure a bonding moment in retrospect LOL. We really had to work together. It is all good now and after a few years of having a hole with a swamp in the backyard we are finally up and running! whoohoo!

with all of our work in the back these last few weeks we have totally neglected our house, today was cleaning day...wow felt great! Cam tackled the kitchen, so nice to see the counter again LOL and the kids had trashed their room, so I worked together with the 2 older girls to get everything back in it's place and it looks so nice now, they are so proud. I keep opening the door and peeking in just because it looks great! Today I am thankful for my home and the way we can work together as a family.

my 3 Blessings

How Blessed am I???

On Lac du Bonnet beach

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here is my sweet Tiara on the beach, in Lac du Bonnet this past weekend. It was so peaceful for her and she really enjoyed it! I did this layout using mostly goodies from Scrap Artist and a few others, my supply list can be found here. I love these photos of her, they make me happy :) This is the beach where I spent so much time when I was growing up. My Gramie's house was just off of the beach and I would spend a good part of my summer's there, it was so nice to take my children there and make some new memories with them.

A rainy day here today, but still lots to get done. We have been working on our backyard while Cam is on holidays lots to take care of back there, but it is really coming along. Yesterday we got landscape fabric down in the gardens and rocks in one and cedar chips in the other, looks so nice and neat! The day before Cam built a swing set for the kids and we built them a sandbox before that, just things we have been wanting to do for a long time. Lots of work but even more fun!!!

good time away

We definetly had a really nice time out at the lake, and although it was jam-packed with fun, we were able to find those peaceful moments I was craving as well. Sitting together as a family at sunset eating ice creams with the beach to ourselves , meeting up with long-lost family and cousins from other provonces, some I haven't seen in 15 years and some even longer so it was a real treat to be all together. I will have to load in my other photos and get a few up on here. But when I saw this one that I took of the sap dripping out of uncle Martin's tree I thought, yes in the peaceful moments we have eyes to see things like this. So much beauty in God's great world! When life gets busy I think all to often we rush by without really seeing the beauty around us, just too busy getting where we are going and doing what needs to be done. I even got a shot of some baby birds in their nest. Just enjoyed taking it all in and breathing the fresh country air. Stop today to take a deep breathe and tell me what you see, what is beautiful in your world?

Finding peaceful moments

ok well, I still have a bunch more photos from Chicago that I wanted to share, but I'll have to settle for just getting this one on here today because we have to get going. Just sitting down for a second.

I loved this peaceful spot. In the middle of busy downtown Chicago, a super pretty courtyard with benches and gardens and this fountain, it was the perfect spot to just breathe and for a few minutes forget all of the busyness going on so close by. As you can see on the street behind me everything was still going on but from right here it was peaceful. I love this photo to remind me of that, to remind me to find those peaceful moments amid all of the hustle and bustle we create in our life. I need that so much, I just sometimes forget to take it! Excited for this weekend to enjoy peaceful moments with my children and Cam, I'm not bringing his laptop or even my magazines, just a journal and of course my camera. aahh sounds good!

Thinking Face

This is a layout I did a little while ago with some of the fantasic product I got being Holly McCaig 's guest fairy chick for June. My Tiara is such a character, on this day she was sitting on the lawn practicing faces, and when I went to see what was happening, she makes this face and says "look mama this is my new thinking face" hahahahaha!!!! this girl just makes me laugh! Holly's product is available at Plain Digital Wrapper, lots of good good stuff there.

I am working on the out of the box challenge for Scrap Artist this week and I thought of this layout. To make the circle cut-outs I used a piece of spotted pp and selected and cut out the background leaving only the circles, totally fun and way easier then cutting many seperately. So I think my challence will be to use pp and cut it up to create some kind of fun elements on your page, stitch it down attach it with brads, tear it up, doodle on it... you name it. Get creative! Come over to the scrap artist outside the box forum after Sunday and show me what you've got! or come and leave me a link here! I love to see everyone let go and play!!!!

It's a long weekend for us here in Canada this weekend so we are just getting ready to head out to the lake at Lac du Bonnet, where I grew up spending so many of my summers, I'm so excited to take the kids and to see all of my cousins and family at the Tetrault reunion!!! whatever you are doing this weekend remember to chereish the time together it is just so precious!!!

Edited to say:

sorry, false alarm! the scrap artist schedule was bumped back by a week after the big anniversary bash, so come and check it out next week and my challenge will be posted then!

small things, great JOY

Today remember to find Joy in the little things.

Tiara is afraid of so much, she had the courage for the first time to touch a ladybug and pick it up! As it crawled on her arm she was shouting out " she likes me mama!!! she is tickling me!" I am so proud of tiara for finding the courage to try, and I am reminded to find the great Joy in the little things!

Fun facts

Over on our Creative team board this week at Designer digitals we answered a few fun questions. I know plenty of people have done this but I have not. I thought it was great to read fun facts about some of the other ladies and decided I'd copy my answers here just for kicks.

Four jobs I have had in my life: was a foster parent, ran a daycare, was a nursing assistant, taught scrapping workshops

Four movies I can watch over and over: Save the Last Dance, Mary Poppins ( my favorite!!!) Anne of Green Gables, and Annie...What can I say I am just a BiG kid!

Four places I have lived: an apartment in the city, a 5 bedroom trailer in the country, a sunny little hundred year old house with beautiful stained glass windows, and a nice sized 4 level split in a good family neighborhood...But all here in Winnipeg where we were both born and grew up! Not too exciting but we are happy

Four TV shows I love to watch: Grey's Anatomy, Alias ( so sad it is over!), CSI, Crossing Jordan

Four places I have been on vacation: Florida & Bahamas ( a Disney cruise Awesome Fun!!!), Jamaica ( our honeymoon), Mexico ( Cam's work sent us ), Chicago (CHA!)

Four of my favorite dishes: ice cream and fresh blueberries ( does this count as a dish?), Tortellini and 4 cheese sauce baked with cheese on top ( LOVE pasta and reeeally LOVE cheese!), breakfast for supper...Love it! Pancakes or homemade Belgian waffles with warm fresh made pudding on top and fresh fruit mmmmmmmm!!!! All that goodness!, and I love a BIG bowl of cereal a MUST have everyday

Four websites I visit daily: Designer digitalis, Scrap Artist, my Yahoo mail, and CK

Four places I would rather be right now: AAAhh! Well...Hawaii would be nice ( just have to get there someday!), the beach any beach, sleeping in my bed , and to be honest I am thankful and happy to be here right here right now I love my life I am truly Blessed there is nowhere else I would rather be!

and I just have to add here because I have been asked so often...

My first name: Christie-Dawn ( I have been called C.D. by everyone except my mom for ever!)

Fun!!! Thank-you all so very much for all of the wonderful thoughts and kind Congrats re: SOY!, I feel really special and totally Blessed! You all make me smile so so big

BE FREE!!!

Quick Layout post. This was one I did awhile ago for the Ultimate digi scrapper contest but never posted it anywhere else. supplies can be found HERE.

I love scrapping totally free!!! Just really letting go and letting all my creativity come out, especially with photos like these of my silly crazy Tiara! I just love adding things like the rosy cheeks and buttons on her shirt without caring if it is "OK" For the scrapartist pool party I posted this as my example of freestyle. Now when I say freestyle I am not saying trying to imitate the look from the Autumn Leaves book, or any popular trend, though the book is super Awesome! And so is the blog. What I am meaning is just letting go and pouring out all the fun ideas and creativity you've got into your page or your art whatever it may be. Different for everyone because we are all different but no matter who you are I guarantee you it will feel great! So for those of you who didn't make it over to the scrap artist challenges. I challenge you to just sit down and be free, throw out the rules and just make something, even if you think it is crazy, I bet it is not! Whether you do Digi , paper, projects , you-name it!!! Just let go and go-for-it! And if you post it and want to share please come back and leave a link here I would love to see what you do!!!

Good good news!

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Checkout the lovely greeting sent to me by our awesome friends Krista and Braden from out of province!! Why the congrats? Well I did a crazy thing a little while ago...I didn't really tell anyone, just worked my butt off to prepare my portfolio of twenty and sent it in for CKs Scrapbooker of the Year contest! I never imagined I could have a chance at something so Big ( if you are not sure what it is all about click the link and check it out!!!) but there are a few pretty great ladies out there who believe in me and gave me the confidence to give it a shot. Well, I am sure thankful, because yesterday I got a phone call from Tracy White telling me that I am one of the ten finalists they are sending to Las Vegas!!!!! I am so incredibly honored and amazed.

It is only starting to sink in today after seeing my name on that list and getting so many very kind congrats that this is real and it is totally HUGE!!! I am someone who seems to have a delayed reaction to things whatever it may be I just do what needs to be done and sometime later I actually feel all of my emotions! So I don't think I sounded nearly as excited as I really am when Tracy called. I have been asked a few times to share about getting the call so...

Here's my story:

I had planned to be home all day and it's nice that Cam is on holidays right now so he was home too...Just in case somehow there would be a call! They announced on the message board that they needed more time and would probably not be making calls until Tuesday, bummer because I had to be out ALL day Tuesday. Oh well, I carried on with my day got lots done and then around quarter to four or so the phone rang and I thought nothing of it but checked the call display anyway....801 area code!!!!!!!!!!! I knew!!! But I answered all calm and cool in my nice voice, and on the other end there is Tracy telling me how nice it was to meet me and my "cute husband" ( he loves that!) last week, I calmly talk with her a bit and then she says "so I did wanted to call and say how much I enjoyed meeting you at CHA, but also to tell you that you have been selected as a finalist in our scrapbooker of the year contest!" at this point I am still all calm sounding but I am totally totally shaking, I am sure I said something like " no way! wow thank-you!" way too quietly...She's telling me that they will be sending me to Las Vegas but it is a bit of a blur because my mind is spinning and I'm trying to walk my shaky legs up to the kitchen where Cam and my mom are. Then ( this is totally too funny!) I ask her to hold on for a second and just say "CAM..." And point at the phone and nod because I can't form any words to tell him, he shouts out a big "WHOoHOo!!!" and my sweet mom who is in the kitchen lovingly making us rice pudding is trying to give me a hug, but is feeling all proud and emotional and can't see where she is going through her tears so she ends up spilling the raisins all over the floor and shouting out something like "congratulations there are raisins going all over the place!!!" and here I am in that moment remembering listening to the HOF calls and thinking "oh goodness please don't be taping this!" Everyone will think us Muckoskys celebrate by muttering half sentences, shouting out sounds and scattering small dried fruit!!! So
I quickly left the room and tried to listen as Tracy was telling me she was making calls from home, that I had to keep it a secret for now, and to pack my bags. At the time I had a nice talk with her and I think sounded fairly calm and normal but now it is just a big blur because by that point I was shaking so badly and I was just so completely thankful!!! I'm pretty sure I thanked Tracy a whole bunch of times and said something about getting to hang out with her again in October.

I can't even express in words how truly thankful I feel for this opportunity. My art is my passion, and that is good enough for me! Being on such amazing creative teams, and having the chance to go to Chicago is so dreamy, But then being recognized in this way and in such awesome company is just really unbelievable!!! The icing on the cake for sure! congrats to April Peterson, Beth Opel, Holly VanDyne, Jody Ferlaak, Leah LaMontagne, Liana Suwandi, Mou Saha, Samantha Walker, and Tiffany Tillman. Can you really believe that we all have a one -in-ten chance at $10,000 and a 2 year contract with CK??!!!! WHOA! Thank-you so much to CK for this chance, and my wonderful friends and family who totally stand by me and believe in what it is that I love to do even when you don't all totally understand what that is! This is where my treasure lies! Right here spilling raisins with the ones I love!!! :)

a little dip

And one more Layout! One of my favorite things about summer is kids in the water! so fun and refreshing. Emy and Bella squeezed themselves into this tiny pool and were having so much fun together!

this one was in the last Muse ( the Scrap Artist newsletter) So except for the cardboard everything used here is from Scrap Artist. Oh and by the way they are having a wonderful anniversary pool party over there until tonight! Good sales and lots of fun challenges! come and check out me and Lisa's freestyle challenge. We are having lots of fun and there is a wonderful kit being given to all who participate. ( in any of the great events!)

Ava's card

I will have to come back to my regularly scheduled sharing of CHA pics and stories ( I know everyone else is long done, but I'm slow and was having trouble getting photos to load!) but I realized recently how long it has been since I shared any work on here. So here is a card I did for our friends who came to visit from out of province. Sweet little Ava just turned one so this is a 4x6 that they can share with some family and friends. She is just a total doll!

we're Back!

We're back!!! Chicago was great, hangin with my Cam was wonderful and we met sooooo many great people! I'm gonna have to post in bits cuz there is so much I wanna share.We are still totally exhausted, The driving was pretty much through the night there and back ( with a few nappy rest stops) and our time there was just packed with goodness! Check out this cute make and take album the Lisa Cohen and I both got to make at A2Z essentials , such super friendly chicks over there and great papers to play with! I am going to attempt to load some photos of some of the people I met but I'm having a bit of trouble with blogger so I'd say just check back and I'll keep adding as I can.
We had a really great time at the CK reception on Sat evening! Here's a pic of Jessica Sprague and I enjoying the yummy snacks ( my favorite! ice cream and tons of toppings!!!) It was great to meet her in person and chat for awhile. We all got the cutest name tags and Ali's new font CD and designing with patterned paper book! Definitely really good stuff!!! I'll have to grab some more photos of meeting people from that evening, because there was definitely a whole lot of meeting going on :) It was great to meet some more digi gals over at the Autumn Leaves booth. Here is (LtoR) Terra, Tia Bennett, Me and Heather Ann Meltzer. All such fun and friendly chicks! It was great to get some big hugs and good chats. It amazes me how we can meet all of these people working together online and then when you get to meet in person really feel like you kinda know eachother. Had a good talk with Rhonna too while I was there, she was also super nice.

The product was overwhelming and amazing, so much that I have never seen IRL, and all of the people I met were so great.I can't seem to add any more photos , so I'll come back and try again later.

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the PINK suitcase is heading to CHA!

I can't even tell you how exited I am getting to be leaving for summer CHA in Chicago in two days!!! Meeting so many people, seeing all those yummy new scrap supplies, and 4 days of time with Cam.....I just may pass out from excitement here!

We only have one decent suitcase, Cam uses it, and I was in need of one for awhile...It's not like we travel often but I want to use it to haul all of my photography stuff to shoots. So when I saw this amazing ,happy, Huge, PINK one on clearance at Winners I knew I had found the one for me! It was Luggage Love at first sight. I will be spending the day today packing my beautiful pink suitcase, and getting the girl's stuff ready for our parents who will be sharing the kids . You would not believe the amount of preparation it takes for 5 people...Even thought he kids are not coming they still need clean outfits ready, food bought, activities and all of that. I had gotten a bit behind with laundry while my arm was really hurt, just because I couldn't fold, so it was piling up, clean, but a whole loveseat full! So I have been wading through that some, and yesterday we got all of the groceries for my mom and the girls while we are gone. I do have a bit of a to do list to tackle to be ready but it is different traveling without kids that's for sure!

Friday night we will be meeting up with some of the FAB folks from Designer Digitals, and
I received my invitation last Friday to the CK reception. I can't wait to meet some of the other gals who won HM in the HOF that I have been getting to know. We get to spend an evening of good food and prizes ( ooooohh!) with quite a few of the editors that we all love. OK you've got to check out this line from the invite: "Who's going? Brenda Arnall, Erin Lincoln, Denise Pauley and Ali Edwards, as well as Leslie Miller, Jennifer Purdie, Tracy White and most importantly . .YOU!" How goofy do you think I got when I read that??!!!! I have never met any of the scrapping chickee s that I have gotten to know online, in real life, so that is what I'm most looking forward to ( other than just getting away with Cam) but seriously I'm a little girl from Manitoba Canada who doesn't get to go to these things and meet super cool people ( we do have plenty of coolness here I must say! heehee), so getting an evening with all of these CK ladies is something I totally don't take lightly.... Just such a dream! The whole thing is. We are driving to Minneapolis and flying from there, even simply the drive alone with Cam is something I look forward to. Now my only delema is to figure out what kind of footwear would look acceptable with my decent looking clothes and still be comfy enough to walk in all day. See I go around in my comfy foamy crocs and they just look a little goofy with nicer clothes, housewife chic is normally the only style I need. :) any suggestions?

I love this! My sweet baby girl holding her daddy's hand strolling along to the park on a warm summer evening, with happily skipping big sister feet up ahead lol! My life makes me happy, it just does. Sometimes I just hang back a bit and watch it all, and these simple times are the ones that make me so thankful to just be in it! Have a great weekend

I'M sooooo RAD??!

look at this!!! a collection made just for me?? lol! This cracks me up. Kim and I have had somewhat of an ongoing RAD joke for quite sometime ( I won't even try and explain that one) so when she decided to call this new collection of hers "RAD CD". I thought it was too funny, but actually seeing it on her label just makes me giggle :) Had to share

way RAD!

I am so totally excited about my friend Kim's new collection!!! It is definitely total RAD-ness, the elements are fun and realistic, the papers are the perfect mix of bright & fresh and good & grungy. She got it all just perfect! Come check out the launch party tonight and try to win the whole collection! and if not you will definitely get some goodies for free!!!

This one is my total favorite, perfect for beach shots and look at those cool little tabs and belts! I'm working on a LO of my little bro using these papers... but really most of the kits I totally love, check out the other previews on Kim's blog Can you tell I'm stoked?!

OK you gotta scroll down and read the Canada day post first and then look at these two pictures!

I really like this photo I got of my Cam sitting by the gardener's shed after dinner. I love this man so crazy much I want a millionbazillion anniversaries with him. He is just as truly good as a person could ever be, so kind and selfless, and he makes me laugh like crazy!

our marble brownie, warm and soft and oh so delicious, with two forks, and two happy people ( anniversary dessert see previous post)

Canada Day!

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Canada day this year was a blast!

For those who don't know July first is our anniversary as well.

and Even though it was a couple weeks ago I have to post this quick little bookmark I made, showing some of the girls fun moments. The girls had gone for a sleepover at Cam's parents the night before and then we all went out to Tinkertown for the afternoon. My in-laws are so wonderful, I've seen it a million times before but it was really great to see the way the kids just light up when they are with them.

Tiara and Kaiella are so different this year, so much braver, Tiara was more then overjoyed to ride the merry-go-round over and over ( she loves horses!) and she went on a whole bunch of other rides, she has always been too afraid! Kaiella has always been daring but she's not even two yet so this is her first year going on rides, I was amazed at how much she loved it all. We put her in one of the little cars alone and she was so thrilled to have both steering wheels to herself she just spun them the whole drive shouting "twooooo!!!" over and over again. Emilea is somewhat of a thrillseeker when it comes to these things, the faster the ride the dizzier it makes her the better!

After a perfect afternoon, we headed home and left the girls with my marvelous mom and Cam and I went out for a wonderful dinner at Pineridge Hollow the place where we got married. This cool little tea house with gorgeous gardens and a big white tent. We ate out on the screen porch, there was a gentle breeze and it was just warm not too hot. We shared a super great pickerel dinner, Cam had salad and I had mushroom perogies with dill sauce, for desert we shared a big warm marble brownie with caramel drizzled on top. MMMMMMM! After roaming the gardens and taking a few pictures of ourselves, we were off to a late movie. We never ever end up getting out together alone, and it was really nice. We will have to make a point to do it more often. So that was our Canada Day this year, we didn't get to see the fireworks but it was such a perfect day that it doesn't matter. These are the moments I want to always remember.

edited to say: blogger is not adding my other pictures again *sigh* so I'm gonna post them on their own after this and see if that works

Brown-eyed inspiration!

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tonight's inspiration LO!!!

Edited to say: I will post this with supplies sometime tomorrow. It was a busy night over here, so I need to grab an ice pack and rest my arm. I just wanted to thank everyone who came to chat at Designer Digitals tonight for coming and hanging out, and for all of the kind words that came my way. And deffinetly, a big thank-you to Katie for designing such a beautiful pack for us all!

come and chat!!!

I know I have tons of catching up to do , I have photos to share and a few layouts even, and I will definetly do that soon...but why don't you Come and chat with me at Designer Digitals tonight at 10 pm est!!! I am hosting the chat for the first time! When I was thinking of a good inspiration I asked for fabric swatches and Katie has made this awesome freebie to give away to those in attendance. It's always a really great bunch over there and lots of fun to be had , so come out and crop and chat or just chat. I'm a wee bit nervous I have to admit it, but mostly just excited.