When you wish upon a star...

haven't scrapbooked in forever so here's a few Disney pages I did earlier this year

blast from the past

I created this page about 6 years ago with a copy of disintegrating, faded photo of me from '93 (that's 1993 not 1893). It was my first attempt at the vintage distresed look, which was NEW at the time and I'd like to re-do it.

I would love it if the photographer could score me a new 5x7 print (hint hint)

this is the other one I would love a new copy of...

tiny dancer

Never Smile at a Crocodile was their dance number and they were oh so adorable

Take a bow sweetheart you were awesome!

everyday is an adventure

June has been a busy month, but then again aren't they all...

Pre-School Graduation

Dance Recital

(whoops that card hasn't been loaded on my computer yet)

Road trip to Edmonton with Mom

to take a Heidi Swapp class

made a 15 page 8x8 India Travel album for Kaylin's Teacher (which i remembered to snap photos of just before i gave it to her)

Celebrated Just Scrap It's 10th anniversary

a week of make n'takes @ the art bar

moved, ripped out carpet, cleaned, laid a tile floor, cleaned, boxed up junk, arranged and re-arranged furniture, cleaned some more (i don't take pictures of EVERYTHING)

I gotta say a huge thanks to Kate {I LOVE you and I hate you for} for posting this:

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug (MicroSafe)

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well..
Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts.
The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! (put a plate under the mug)
Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. EAT and Enjoy! (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous).
And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world?
Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night!

Seriously this is really good for 5 minutes and in the microwave. I have made this far more times than I should have since I discovered it. My waistline is proof! Blasted chocolate dependency. Of course I felt obliged to pass it on... i dare you

Balance

May:
1 little girl + 2 different preschools + Dance Class= 5 different field trips, 3 mommy helper days, 1 Mother's Day Tea Party, 1 Kindergarten meet n' greet, 1 costumed photo session, 15 pink sponge rollers, 3 dress rehearsals, 1 major dance production and a partridge in a pear tree all going down during "work hours" of course. Thank the stars my work schedule is flexible, sheesh how do other working moms do it?

Not that I'm complaining. I happily do it all for this little girl of mine, and more.

Fun news, right after Kaylin's Dance recital on the 30th Deb and I are off to Edmonton for a retailer's workshop with Heidi Swapp, plus a little shoppping!
I'd say that Balances things nicely.

feels like spring

What a fabulous weekend, ok Sunday was fabulous. Started the day with a trip to Costco all by myself, you know what that means?? I actually got to ummm browse, linger in the book section, actually check out the 80% of the store I skip over when I have the family in tow. Not sure why but Costco with my family always seems especially umm challenging for some odd reason, so we often avoid it. Anyway after Costco we all went for a nice long bike ride and played at the park. When we returned home, I opened up all the windows and doors, no screens {it felt so liberating} and let the breeze blow through the house while I made a batch of Gluten Free chocolate chip cookies. When I just couldn't stand to stay indoors any longer I started cleaning up my flower beds. My tulips and hyacinth bulbs have started popping up already. Spring is here?!?

opinionated

Well it's over, and I'm glad. I finished Eclipse last Thursday night and picked up the fourth and final book in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn on friday after work. I read, and read and read until Sunday night just after supper, I finished it (I took breaks to take care of the basic needs of my family and for sleep). Whew! Kev thought I should read much slower a little each night, savouring each chapter, making it last. I'm just not that kind of reader, I dive in and devour. Now that I'm done the series, at least I'll be able to think about something else (maybe). I loved the series, might have loved it more if it were written for an adult audience, but that didn't detract from the overall story. The story definitely sucked me in and kept me reading, the characters were well developed, sympathetic and love able. After awhile the whole Jacob, Bella, Edward triangle just got to be too much as did the fairytale romance between Ed and Bella ( a few gag me moments). The ending felt a little rushed (despite being 734 pages), the final conflict slightly disappointing, but it finished with a nice little happily ever after. By the time I got thorough the final book, I was ready for it to be over. Not because I wanted it to be over, but because I couldn't stop obsessively thinking about it/them when I wasn't reading.
After I finished the series Kevin and I watched the movie and I gotta say... I didn't love it.





Jennifer, I read the back cover of A Thousand Splendid Suns and thought to myself, ugh do I really want to spend a week in Afghanistan?? even for a good story? I don't think I'm in a good place for "heart wrenching" anyway. Lighthearted and fun is what I'm after for literary diversion these days.

naughty or nice?

Here's one of those pages I've pulled out to scrapbook several times then put it away unscraped so as not to waste any more precious time simply staring at it unable to come up with a paper combination I liked much less a layout. The other day I pulled it out and had the page complete in under 15 minutes. slowly moving along...

huh?

eclipse

Well once Edward returned, I simply could not put New Moon down till I'd finished it. So last night I went out and bought book 3 of the series, Eclipse and now I'm half way through that too. It's soooo hard to pace myself. I don't want to rush through the 3rd and 4th books and then be left with nothing more to look forward to. On the other hand Edward and Bella have totally saturated my consciousness and I can think of little else but getting back to them. My husband is completely confused and confounded by this phenomenom. He used to wonder how I could possible sit and read for hours when (and I quote) "how can you read that much, when nobody is forcing you to, there's no test at the end?" Now he just shakes his head and tries to leave me be when I delve "literally into another universe".


ok but it's not reading time at the moment so I'd better get back to reality and earn some reading time by getting work done.


Aside from reading last weekend I did 11 pages, all but 2 are still incomplete to some degree, but I'll have that Disney album done soon!
this is one of the new papers from PDQ, they are so fun to work with beacuse 90% of the work is done for you.

my ships have come in...

I found this massive painting (40x60") at a street market in Bayahibe, DR. This oil painting represents Columbus' three ships, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria as they landed in the Dominican Republic in December 1492. I walked away from it the first day I saw it, but I couldn't stop thinking or talking about "my painting". On our last morning at the resort Kevin and walked back to the little village to get it. I got it for an amazing deal and it's perfect for the wall above my stairway/entry. I think what I love about it most is how much energy it has bouncing of of it. I just have to get it re-framed. Today's mission!

On a vacation with no children, I would have taken at least 4 books.
With the whole family, I didn't think I'd have much time for
reading so I brought just one (trying to pack light and all).
I picked up Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
and then I couldn't hardly put it down, loved it!
Despite much interruption, and in small blocks of time,
I finished it with 2 days left to go so I had nothing to read on the plane ride home.
Fortunately for me {not really} and the other 150 adults on the plane High School Musical 3 was the 1st movie up on our 8 hour flight. What were they thinking??? For a moment I was sad as I'd not yet seen HSM1 or 2. Would that matter? It did not. I did watch a good portion of it, although often with out sound. I suppose it appealed to my fond childhood memories of Fame and the Minipops but ughh! I'm sure the only 2 people on the plane that loved it were my 8 yo neice and 10 yo nephew. For 106 minutes they sat quitely in the seats in front of us. Kaylin's too young to show interest in "real people" movies, and I much prefer Disney movies for the under 8 genre myself.

I picked up New Moon (book 2 of the twilight series) at the Airport in Calgary, and I'm a little more than 1/2 way through, anxiously waiting for Edward's return.

I did this layout (with the Glitz girls, Laura and Erin) in a class last weekend at the Memories Wholesale retailers convention and I had the perfect photo for the page with me, so vioila!

7 days in Paradise

Kevin, Kaylin Josh and I, along with the rest of the Nordstrom family, spent an incredible 7 days in paradise... at Dreams Resort in La Romana, Dominican Republic. We had perfect weather and we soaked up every minute of it by the pool or beach side. I took just under a thousand photos, most are of Kaylin, but I did capture as many others as my "busy" schedule would allow. Here are a few of my favorites so far...

hundreds more fun shots to scrapbook.

Magical Memories

One little melt down shortly after entering the park, I wanted a photo op in front of the castle, she wanted to get to the Princess, like now. So this was my photo op, scrap it like it is. The rest of the day, after we finally met those princesses of course, was Magical!

I aim to have this album done before she's 11 and has become too cool for disney. So for the next little while I'll be up to my ears in it. We only spent one day in the park so I don't have tons of photos (relatively speaking) but so far I've got 2 layouts done (except the journalling) and a start on a 3rd.

can I have your autograph?

Someone suggested to me that it was about time I updated my blog, I suppose it is.

Kaylin had 2 differentt autograph books for this trip to Disney. One for the Princesses and one for the other Disney characters.

Deb made this princess book in a class on her scrapbooking cruise last year.

Unfortunately Cinderella was off getting ready for the ball that day, so we missed her as well as Ariel. At least we met Kaylin's favorite princesses Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) and Belle. Belle was fantastic, she spent at least 10 minutes engaging Kaylin and sharing princess secrets. In all it was worth the hour long wait, which thankfully was the only time we had to wait more than 10 minutes for anything all day long. I highly recommend taking you kids out of school and going during the non-peak times rather than over the Christmas, Feb or Easter breaks. Kaylin's favorite ride was Pooh's adventure in Critter Country we went on it 3 times and because there was NO LINE UP they didn't even make us get off, we just went through over and over. Now that's the way to experience Disneyland! I have several friends who went during Christmas/New years and said it was so horrifically busy they just didn't enjoy it at all.

This is the book I whipped just before our trip, pretty simple but it did the trick.

I remember watching the Magical World of Disney on tv every Sunday night as a kid, so I knew the Disney characters well. I'm not sure Kaylin has ever seen a Mickey Mouse cartoon, yet she's familiar with these characters all the same. I also talked it up alot before we arrived.

It still needs a little embellishing, but there's lots of room for extra little pictures

We Wish YOU a Merry Christmas

Well the holiday decor is where it should be. The christmas baking is done, and almost completely eaten. We've been to see Santa. The cards got mailed. The presents are bought and wrapped (well maybe 1 or 2 more to pick up). Concerts have been performed and attended. We have 3 more parties to go this weekend and then Nordstroms are ready for Christmas. Kaylin, no different than any other child is sooooo excited for Santa's arrival. We must countdown those days at least 10 times a day. One more job for this little elf to finish and who knows maybe I'll even find a little time to scrap over the holidays.

Cheers and best wishes to you and yours this holiday season.

"dillicious"

well I didn't cross everything off my list, no workout, no Christmas tree, but I did do a page last night! Yeah for me. I love love love that dill chipboard from riff raff (also naked), it coordinates perfectly with the dill paper from Crate Paper.

So after I put little K to bed last night I made 2 bracelets

and of course I went to bed far too late to be getting up early for a morning workout. I am just so not a morning person, why kid myself, but I will try to check thay off the list tonight. I have a beach vacation to get this body ready for (well I gotta try at least). As for the rest of the list well the day's not over yet... although at this point I think the christmas tree is more likely to happen than the scrapbook page.

and here's the family christmas photo taken by Melina Perron.

at this point I considered letting November slip past without a post at all...nah
I'm all caught up checking out all the blogs I haven't had time to visit lately

I have not formally "scrapbooked" anything personal in over a month. I think I need some kind of intervention, or at least a playdate. { It's apparent I've not folded laundry in at least that amount of time as well } Now that's not to say I haven't been working on all kinds of things, cards, mini books, wedding pages, more cards but all of it's been for classes and such. Today I made a lovely little gratitude journal/mini album for an upcoming class with the staff @ Lululemon. I'm really looking forward to that. I'll post pics when we're done. I've got 3 big unfinished non page projects on the go that I'm less than thrilled to get back to because I'm really itching just to do some plain ol' scrapbooking (and besides it's my nature to start not finish things). So instead I'm off to make some jewelry, because despite the itch at the moment I just cant look at one more scrap of paper, not one more glue dot.
However,

Tomorrow I WILL finish and post a page
and I will get up early to workout before we leave for work/preschool
and I will send off my M and CI orders
and I will make an eye Dr appointment, and a dentist appointment
and I will get my family Christmas card pictures printed
and I will get Kaylin to dance class on time
and I will get to bank before it closes
and I will make a "real" dinner
and I will ask my husband to retrieve the Christmas Decor from the attic
but I will NOT be putting the tree up because, sheesh by then I'll be too exhausted.

None of the above seem like much of a challenge to get accomplished, yet the top 7 are all things that have been on my list of to do's for weeks, the tree's just a bonus and I've still got tons of time to let that one slide HA!

Happy Halloween from the little chicken and the 80's angel of death