Canada Day Fun

Is it too late to post Canada Day pictures? No.... ok good! 

The weather was perfect for spending the day out in the sun so we headed down to the Legislature Grounds here in Edmonton. It really is so beautiful and all the fountains just add the perfect touch for summer. We grabbed treats from food trucks, splashed in the fountains and listened to some live music. A pretty great morning. 

After that we headed to a friend's BBQ and ate some super delicious food and then enjoyed the fireworks. It was such a great day full of family, friends and sunshine!

The Magic of Friendships: layout inspiration

Both pages were created using product from the Treasured Memories' January month kit.

My Lady Tribe

My lady tribe. 

I wrote about these ladies and our group back here and since I sent the original email we have gained two more beautiful souls. Creating this tribe of like minded, compassionate, inspiring and hilarious women has been the greatest gift. Medicine for a broken heart and a jumbled mind. 

A group of women who lift me up and let me know that I am never alone, even though it can feel like it at times. 

I send them a list of dates, "yell" at them to write it in their schedules and then I set a time and place. I am (according to them), their chief. I basically boss them around and tell them where to be. 

We eat, drink, laugh and talk about far too many inappropriate things! 

It's pretty much the best!    

I love you lady tribe, you have my heart.

♥

Camp He Ho Ha Getaway

Two weekends ago I headed out on my first scrapbooking retreat with the most wonderful group of ladies. I didn't know what to expect, I packed WAY too much stuff and I had such a great time! The location is about 45 minutes outside of Edmonton beside a beautiful lake. The weather was beautiful (minus a wind storm) and we were able to get outside and take in the scenery each day (and a few million selphies). I was there from Thursday afternoon to Sunday and it was SO great to have me time. I quickly realized that I need to do this more often, not necessarily pack everything I own but to get away and enjoy the quiet and stillness of not having any responsibilities. I can't even remember the last time I was away from Anna and from Cory- 2007! When I stopped to think about it I couldn't believe it. I was clearly due for this sort of adventure.
I admittedly had a hard time getting into the creative spirit. I spent the first day organizing but that was OK with me, I love organizing. I could have just walked around and sat and listened to all the stories all weekend... and ate Skor bar bites. I ended up getting 14 layouts complete and they were for me... not for a deadline or a class or a project. That was a big wow for me.
I can't thank Cathy enough for organizing this for all the ladies that attended. I know how much work it takes to organize a group of ladies and I am grateful I was included.

our dorm

the craft room

playing

happy

selphie after selphie

Candace, me, Karen, Lisa, Alison, Annette

a lot of silly and a lot of laughs

the whole gang

catching magic sunsets

Making Time

I had mentioned back in this post that I had been seeing and reading about women and their tribes. I kept thinking "I need this." I decided to do something about it & sent an email to a group of ladies I am great friends with but only see when they come into the store to scrapbook- and I am always working. We met up at Beer Revolution, drank beer, ate yummy food, told stories & laughed... a lot. It was pretty wonderful, I went home feeling full with happiness & gratitude. 

Around Here: Our Canada Day

Canada Day in photos. We headed out to St. Albert to spend the day with friends and had the best day! We ate donuts for breakfast, ran around waving a flag, slathered on sunscreen, bounced in bouncy houses, tried to stop kids from crying, ate from food trucks, learned about firetrucks and the inside of a tank. We headed back to Karen's for margaritas, water fights, BBQ, selphies, laughs, naked kiddos streaking, more laughs, sun tanning, Transformers and ice cream treats. We missed the fireworks in the city, margaritas and sun got the best of us and that is ok. I wish we could do it all over again today. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful day!

Make it Edmonton

If you are local to the Edmonton area, one of the biggest Canadian handmade markets is in our city this weekend and you NEED to check it out. Supporting our local designers and all the amazing handmade out there is our duty... ok, so that may or may not seem a bit dramatic but I believe strongly in the handmade market! 

Here are all the details for Make it Edmonton. You can click here for $1 off admission.

Stop by booth 116: Simply Stated Design and check out the amazing hand embroidered canvases created by my amazing, talented friend Chantel. 

meet my friend Karen

I snagged this image from Karen's blog.

I wanted to share with you a fabulous, incredibly talented friend of mine who has started a blog- a scrapbooking blog and I could not be more excited!!! I would like to introduce you to Karen from You Could Open A Store.
 The gist of her blog- create using all the product you already have... and for those scrapbookers out there- you know what I'm talking about! Her last two posts are all about Halloween and her work is amazing! She was the guest designer over at Treasured Memories for their October month kit. Her layouts blew us away and the kit sold out fast!
Pop on over to her blog for some inspiration, new techniques and the teensy  push you might need to use up your stash. You will not be disappointed!

a little stamping and a lot more spraying

Let's just say that I got a bit carried away with the spraying & stamping. I love a lot of things about these sprays but the one thing about any spray that I just don't care for- they warp your paper. I realize that they'll all go flat once they're in my albums but until then they drive me a little coo coo. 

A new product that I recently discovered is the Neon Ink pads from Hero Arts- Amazing colour!  I ordered pink for myself and a bunch for a friend for her birthday. (I ordered directly from Hero Arts as I could find no one in Canada that carried them.) Love them!

These two layouts were made with photos from two birthday parties in September to celebrate Lisa & Kara. Both were so much fun! 

I do think I got a bit carried away with my arrow stamp on this first layout but once I started I was committed to finishing so I am just going to roll with it. 

pattern paper: Heidi Swapp, October Afternoon, wood veneer: Studio Calico, alpha stickers: Heidi Swapp, stars & arrow stamp: Pink Paislee, Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Tropicana Teal, Neon Pink ink: Hero Arts, chevron stamp: made by this beautiful lady, "make" mask: gifted by amazingly talented friends Candace (actually I stole it out of her garbage)

resist pattern paper: Pink Paislee, washi tape: gifted, wood hearts & people: Studio Calico, poloroid frame & alpha stickers: Heidi Swapp, Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Primrose, Tropicana Teal, Georgia Peach, Mustard & Mint Green

spraying, splashing, stamping

I have been scrapbooking for myself and it has been wonderful!

I have been getting messy and it has been great!

I got my hands on some of the new Pink Paislee and new Heidi Swapp product and I quickly became inspired to create! And to get messy!

I am not a spray kind of girl, but I love the new Heidi Swapp Color Shine and have used it on the last 5 layouts I've made. 

These two layouts celebrate two of my dear friends Lisa & Naomi. Love them dearly!

pattern paper, poloroid photo frame & arrow stickers: Heidi Swapp, Color Shine in Tropicana teal: Heidi Swapp, stars & journaling piece: Pink Paislee, wood veneer: Studio Calico, washi tape: gifted, chevron stamp: handmade by my beautiful friend Lisa, 

pattern paper & stickers: Heidi Swapp, Color Shine in Tropicana Teal, Mustard & Primrose: Heidi Swapp, wood veneer: Studio Calico, heart & arrow stamp: Pink Paislee, hexagon mask & washi tape: gifted

girlfriends

My girlfriend Annie and her daughter Penny came to Edmonton for a visit last week. Annie lives in Nelson, BC and we have not seen each other for 2 years. We talk, not often enough, but it just isn't the same. Seeing her was wonderful. We had not met each other's newest family members so that was a sweet treat, Anna & Penny were instant friends which made my heart happy. We sat, drank coffee, chatted, had a couple cries, ate, watched the girls play, had more heart to hearts and hugged it out. They flew home today and we will miss them so much!

Anna & Penny

Annie, myself & Carrie with our girls. Together after a long two years apart.

Annie & I

Today I am feeling very blessed. A full heart and a head full of inspiration.

sweet babies & yesterday's layout

Whenever I see a new baby I can hardly believe how tiny they are, these two were no exception! The tiniest, sweetest, most adorable twins! Dalton is in the blue and Owen is in the white. They're gorgeous! They're perfect!  I just snuggled and kissed and smelled and then snuggled them some more! My friend Karen looked absolutely fabulous, I am beyond happy for her fabulous family! Mwah!

With teeny tiny, brand new babies on the brain I came home and scrapbooked pictures from Anna's first Christmas. She is so adorable. Time goes by far too fast, she is getting so big. It shouldn't surprise you that I used MME's new Christmas line- so fabulous! (sorry for the crooked picture- can't seem to get a better one)

paper & embellishments: MME

a road trip, sunshine & a wonderful friend

I am back from a wonderful trip to Lethbridge. The weather was glorious- so hot & sun shiny! I really had a wonderful time and can't thank Kara enough for having me and her mom for working at Splurge so Kara could have the time off.  I left Anna with her Gramma and headed off, my first stop- Drumhellar for a photo op with the world's largest dinosaur. Then off to Vulcan to see the spaceship and then finally into beautiful Lethbridge.
Kara and I spent two days shopping and sitting on patios- seriously great! I'll share some of my purchases later. We went thrifting, craft store shopping, we went to a tea house for the most delicious mint lavender lemonade and cranberry white chocolate scones with devonshire cream. We went to a greenhouse/cafe for lunch one day- so wonderful and then to a local hot spot the other day that had a patio that reminded me of being in California- awesome! We sat in her back yard and talked & talked- there's a photo below of me watching her work while we visited... I was a very good foreman.
I got to finally see Splurge (her clothing boutique). It is wonderful & I am so proud of her.
I was sad to leave but excited to get back to Cory & Anna. Not so excited to get back to "real" life and the to do list that made to do list babies while I was gone! With that, I'll leave you with some photos of my trip. Have a wonderful weekend friends!

beautiful girlfriends

Today is the first day in a week that I have had time to come downstairs and go on the computer, I have been going bonkers and am so far behind on my posts and blog reading! Anna has been so very needy and Cory has been gone for 5 weeks! As for Anna, I can't be out of sight for a second, she doesn't want to nap for longer than 10 minutes and I can't put her down without a temper tantrum. Holy Moly! But today is a new day and everything is working out fabulously!
I can say though that I am excited to get back to normal around here. Cory has been working out of town, only home for weekends but he is back and is not going anywhere anytime soon! Yeah!!! I have so much appreciation and respect for single moms (or dads) and moms whose husbands are out of town all the time! Babies are hard! I am seriously so far behind with work! I am trying not to have a meltdown as deadlines loom!

Enough about that though, today is a day to share some goodies from some of my favorite people. I truly have an amazing group of women to call friends! I am so grateful. Over the past few weeks I have gone out to get the mail and found these treasures! Fun!

a package from Kara that had the most fabulous little headband for Anna- see below

so adorable, I can't get enough of those cheeks

this beauty had my winnings from Lisa's blog- THANK YOU LISA!! seriously- how amazing is this sketch! She's amazing!

this fabulous bag is from Chantel- ugly reusable bags turned beautiful



i got this bag awhile ago but never did share but must because it's FABULOUS! this one is from Lisa

These ladies are beautiful, amazing, and amazingly talented! I don't say it enough- I am so grateful for you! Check out their blogs for projects, fashion, inspiration and fun! Hugs!!!!