A New Passion

I've been playing more and more with hybrid projects, that is traditional paper scrapbooking combined with digital products. But now I've found a new type of hobby that really has sparked a passion.

Paul suggested that I look up some videos on You Tube and I found some videos by another Canadian showing people how to get started in art journalling. The truth is, I didn't want to start art journalling. I just wanted to learn how to use watercolour pencils, and I found her channel. Her name on You Tube is Journal Artista, and she also has a UStream that I'm starting to follow. You can find her blog at http://www.journalartistaart.com/.

I've never considered art journaling because quite frankly I can't draw. And that's held me back artistically. But now, here's this medium that ALLOWS me to be imperfect, and the more imperfect the better. So I took a trip out to Michaels, and found most of what she recommended to get started. I knew from her videos that this is something I just wanted to dive into!

And here's the result of my first dabbling into art journaling. Now, keep in mind, this was done very quickly. Probably took me no more than one hour to make. But boy was it fun!

So Paula, thank you for helping me find this fun new passion that will hopefully grow, and help me learn to be more creative and let go.

Bullying has to stop now

In watching tonight's episode of Glee I opened a discussion with some friends about the final scene and to tell you the truth it disturbs me. And if you've ever been the victim of bullying I'm sure it disturbed you too. It bothered me because Kurt's friend spoke of regretting the decision to run from bullying instead of having what he called "courage". But if your life is threatened, it would be regarded as foolishness to stay at a school that couldn't protect you. So I put it to my friends, what if transferring wasn't an option? There are always options. But ask yourself if your child knows what his/her options are. I say that because what some people fail to consider is that some victims do not have the support of their parents, or their school, or any known source of support. Some parents think that bullying "teaches" them to hold their head high in spite of adversity. To those parents I say "Think again."

That episode of Glee opened scars that I bear. Scars of a nightmare called highschool, where there were no options to transfer because it was the only school in the district and distance learning was unheard of. No options because my family was supported by my mother's salary, the only salary in the family, and my father was incapable of homeschooling me because of his own problems with alcohol and depression. No options that came from the school, or came from the outside. Fortunately I had the support of my parents in helping me cope with the bullying. I had a student councellor who for all her misguided advice tried to help be bear up under adversity. Did the bullying "teach" me anything at all? Without the support that I had, I would have rather died than endure another day. And unfortunately, that's what some children are choosing today. Because they don't have support. Because someone close to them doesn't support them, perhaps because they think that their child is strong enough to endure it, or will become strong enough to endure. But that's simply not true.

To those of you that have children, I plead with you, support your children. Find your options. Even if your option is to cope and support one another in love until it passes. And to everyone who knows a child being bullied, speak out. Give that child an option. Push for zero tolerance policies, push for legislation, push for financial aid, whatever it takes to give that child an option. Because bullying has no good purpose in this world. And it has to stop. Now.

Charlie's got some new products you need to see!

Well, I've finally opened my new store, and that gives me a chance to get back to normal life (yeah right), with my CT layouts and blog posting and designing and life. Just life. My mom finally today seemed to come to the realization that I love designing. Ya think? Too funny.

Anyhow I want to show you something really cute that Charlie has out at her new store. Cute or what? I love different kinds of butterflies!
Pick them up at her store, here.

And I love her new brushes...anything that resembles a watercolour brush and I am there. These are soft and pretty and perfect for making papers. Check it:


Get them here. She's a terrific designer and photographer and you can't beat her quality so don't miss out on picking these up.

For now, I'm working on a new blog train giveaway and a new dog kit. Looking forward to doing that one because it will be such a challenge for me, and I've been needing one for my own pics for a long time.

Have a great weekend folks and we'll see you sooner next time.

Busy long weekend!

Well the long weekend is here, and it's been fabulous. Believe it or not, today the weather is in the 30s. Celcius. HELLO!!!! In May? That's unheard of!

Paul is outside looking after his square-foot garden and I'm so proud of him. It keeps his hands in the dirt and outside, and he loves that. Not to mention that finally it looks like his corn will come up. Once the garden work is done, we'll be working on getting our patio furniture out there, and enjoy the fruits of our labour.

Today, I've been working on getting the boxes unpacked and out of the living room. Now they'll just be in the basement or garage and then we can start to decorate. I'm thrilled about that because it's starting to really feel like home!

Finally, some warmer weather!

I don't seem to recall in any of my memories such an odd spring. I remember long winters and short spring seasons. I remember weeks of beautiful sunshine, but too cold to wear shorts, and then suddenly needing to find the shorts and tank tops almost overnight. But a spring like this...nope. Can't say I remember anything like this before.

Winter wasn't that bad for us here this year. Mild winter overall, with not too much snow. Not like Paul's first winter here where we got 14 feet of snow. No, that's not a typo. We got 14 feet. Of snow. In one winter. It was not my favourite winter to be sure. But Paul loved it. This winter was pretty mild, with some cold snaps, but certainly nothing to complain about. And then spring hit. And hit it did. It went into the 30s in March. That's Celcius people. We hit the 30s in late June or July. And it lasted about a week. Then it went down. Thank goodness. But it stayed in the 20s for a while. Which made all of us winter-weary Canucks feel like we had to have dirt under our fingernails from putting in our gardens. "Wait!" I told Paul. Wait until Victoria Day, May 24th. That's the sign. The blessed day when you can safely plant around here. And then we got hit with snow and temperatures below zero. Well, sorry to say, we lost the blueberry plant. It seems to have died with the frost and snow this past weekend. And it seems that the corn planted may die or rot as well. Now Paul believes me.

But at last our real spring weather is here and Paul is going to start building our raised bed for our vegetable garden and I'm so excited about it. We are doing a square foot garden to try and take advantage of every bit of space dedicated to the garden in our small stamp-sized backyard. But at least it's our backyard and not shared this time. And it gets full sun. And it is fenced. Hurrah for moving! So hopefully in the next few weeks, I'll find my shorts and t-shirts and be able trot around the backyard without blinding anyone with my lily-white legs.

I've prettied up my blog!

I finally bit the bullet so to speak and bought a blog in a box by Zoe Pearn from SSD. Isn't it pretty? I decided that it's time I updated my own blog from time to time, with things that are going on in my life. Like my 5th anniversary for example.

Paul and I had a lovely day - it was sunny and a little windy, but it was warm enough to take a long walk with the dog. So Paul and I grabbed Nanouk and went out by foot headed for the trail behind the Nepean Sportsplex. All in all, I think we walked for about 3 hours and covered approximately 8 kilometres. Not exactly the smart thing to do before dinner, since it just about wiped us both out.

But we did head for dinner. We tried to get a table at The Keg, but the wait time was over 45 minutes, so we decided to try a little place my mom had recommended. Flying Piggy's is a delightful little trailer-turned restaurant on Bank St. and it's tucked off the road, so you really have to be watching for the sign. They took us right away and we had a lovely dinner of antipasto, wine, gourmet main dishes and then headed home. I would definitely recommend it for anyone who loves authentic italian.

Of course following that day, our anniversary, with lousy weather and snow (yes, I said the s word), is no fun. Especially since Paul wanted to plan his garden this weekend. But we are going to plan it out on paper first, and then do some errands and chores.

All the same, despite the cold weather, it sure is nice to be sitting here, near the fire, with the dog curled at my feet, while Paul busies himself with caring for the plants in the house. We love our new home.

So much going on for iNSD!

I am so looking forward to this weekend! There's so much going on that I think I'll HAVE to go to the chat tomorrow at Simple Scrapper to see how to best plan it.

Check out what's happening at Scrap Matters.


And look at the FWP deal you can pick up! Be sure to visit starting Friday!

Aha! She's back!

Yes, I'm back! It's been a while. My move to my new place was absolutely chaotic, and to boot then I ended up in the hospital. Let me just say that morphine is your friend if you think that dying would feel better than the pain you have, but you still want to live. 'Nuff said.

So Charlie's been back at it, and she's got some lovely goodies for you! Check it!

Here's her part of the April DSV CU Grab Bag: (image is linked to the bag)

And she's got some lovely springy CU in store too, at DSV!




What are you waiting for....? Get over there!

New goodies from Charlie!

I used to love making snowflake cut outs from paper when I was a kid. It was a fun winter project and most times I never knew what was going to come out when I unfolded the paper. Charlie's got some great new notepaper flakes out for those crafty layouts of your kids making garlands or their own snowflakes.

Get them here for 50% off until the end of the month.

What a month!

It's been insanely busy this month! I cannot get over it. With my mom's move, and work being insane too, it's just been hard to find time to breathe!

But I am taking some time for myself to scrap and design. I have to in order to maintain my sanity!

I have an idea for a beautiful winter kit and I'm working on it a bit at a time. I think I'll probably throw in some glitter - you know me.

Speaking of glitter, have you checked this out yet? Charlie's got an awesome deal on this glitter pack:

She's designer of the month at Digi Scrap Obsession in December, so go check this deal out!

Don't forget to pick this up before it goes!

You've only got a few days left to pick up Charlie's October CU grab bag!

She's done something a little different this time than usual, and i know you'll love it! If you are thinking of making some really cute, crafty gifts this season, don't miss this bag. There's items in there good all year round (hint hint). The image is linked to get you there super fast!

Thinking of getting into designing?

Then I think you need this!In this bag you'll find seven new CU products just right for your holiday kits! Charlie's Digiscraps is joined by KimB, Nett, Armina, Laitha and GS Creations! You can't miss this deal. Make your way over there before it goes. (Image is linked)

Charlie's done it again!

Can you still find great commercial use deals out there in digiland? You betcha! Check out what Charlie and the other designers at Digi Scrap Vault have in store for only $2 tomorrow only!

Shopping habits

Isn't it funny, this time of year, how crazy people get in malls? I mean really nuts. As if everything on sale isn't enough, there have to be doorcrashers. And then sale, after sale, after sale. For the most part, this is why I avoid shopping now. I'm just so sick of buying into the whole retail "You absolutely cannot live without this item" marketing ploy. Or having to go shopping every season because last winter's "brown is the new black" is actually pink this year. So how do I deal with the holiday season, or shopping for holidays? I don't. I avoid. Like the plague, until the absolute last minute.

Now for our anniversary, that's a different story in a way. It used to be that we'd go shopping together on the same day, different stores, same mall. Then meet up, go home and open gifts. Then came the "well this is so perfect for you, I'd like to get it for an anniversary gift for you now, is that ok?". So as far as shopping for gifts, I guess we kind of find things while we are both out shopping. But this year I want things to be different. I really want it to be a surprise. So maybe we'll go back to our original plan. Shop the day before or the day of our anniversary, and surprise each other when we get home.

How do you handle shopping?

Check it out! Charlie's having a sale!!

Aren't these flowers gorgeous!? And they are commercial use too! What a great deal. Charlie does awesome commercial use products and these are no exception. Get to the store Saturday!!

An SSD From our blog to Yours!

You Are a Pumpkin Latte

You are energetic and fun loving. You get into the spirt of every season, but fall is definitely your favorite time. You are excited for the change of seasons, and you love the spirit and togetherness it brings. You love to do everything related to fall - whether it's celebrating Halloween and Thanksgiving or going to check out the changing leaves. You truly immerse yourself in the season. You always miss autumn when it's gone, but you make the most of it while it's here.

Ah, my favourite season of the year!

You have to just love Fall here in the Capital. The leaves are turning bright orange and red! We had such a wet spring and summer, but that's good for fall...otherwise the leaves only turn yellow and golds, or so I'm told. As I sit here in my office at lunch, staring out the window across the river to the Gatineaus, I can see that the leaves are already turning much more there than here. Looks like we'll have to see if we can get out to hike next weekend, as it might be peak weekend for the turning of the leaves. I just love this time of year. Crisp days with bright blue skies. Cool nights to walk the dog. The leaves just fallen off the trees leaving their marks on the sidewalk. What's not to like about Fall?

Oh, right. It means winter is coming. :(

Now here's a collab I want to see!!!

Seven, no less than seven, great designers have got together to create an awesome CU grab bag. Check this out!


I'm definitely checking this out because my laptop died this past week, and along with it my latest designs. A real bummer, but this could make up for it. Charlie's Digiscraps does awesome CU stuff...!

So stop by and get the Digi Scrap Vault (October Designer's Collab). Get the entire collection for just $7 this month here.

My Rock Star Name

Well, what the heck...I'm just in that kinda mood.

Your Rockstar Name Is: Vanilla Zombie

Rock on!

What's Your Rockstar Name?

Blogthings: Take a Quiz. Annoy Your Friends.

New Layouts

I got to work with some really cute stuff this week. The first is from a cute kit by Charlie's Digiscrap, called Up, Up and Away. It's available at Digital Scrapbook Obsession, and using template by Lauren Grier.

The next was one of the many challenges I did at Sweet Shoppe Designs this week. I used Misty Cato's Rocky Shores kit.

Another SSD challenge: Using Fee Jardine's Falling for You kit.

One more challenge: For the Sugar Free Challenge at SSD, using Kristin Cronin-Barrow and Meghan Mullen's Cozy Kitchen, and Moments in Time alpha by Kristin Cronin-Barrow. Template by Cindy Schneider

For the Journaling Challenge at SSD - using Kristin Cronin-Barrow's All About Her kit, and a template by Cindy Schneider.

Scraplifting Tovetyll for the Paper to Digi challenge. Here's my take on Dreams. Using My Wish for You by Eva Kipler.

For the Inspiration Challenge at SSD. Using: Template by Cindy Schneider, Some Like it Hot by Zoe Pearn, and Bad Sewing Machine IV by Traci Reed.

The last layout got me a Gallery Standout at SSD. Really thrilled about that one. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the eye candy as much as I enjoyed making it.