Hmmmm

The kids are sleeping.....I could watch a movie, have a glass of wine, admire our pretty Christmas Tree, relish the peace and quiet or steal down to my craft room and create something. Way too many choices but they are great choices!

Keeping Busy

The CONSTANT rain really starts to get to you living in Vancouver after a while. We can't really do anything outdoors and there does not look to be a break in the rain anytime soon. So....off to find things to do while the kids and I are on Christmas break.

Yesterday Brayden went to a friends house for a sleepover, movie and then swimming today. So given it was just the girls, Kaylin and I went to see the new Alvin and Chipmunks movie. It was cute and she liked it.

Today we did our weekly Michael's trip. My girl has turned crafty on me - suits me fine but boy is she crazy with the scissors! She cuts up everything and turns them into little tiny pieces of nothing but scraps left all over my house!!! Oh well. Could be worse I guess. Did I mention that we had to take her glue privledges away unless she is totally supervised by an adult? Don't even ask why! :-) Ahh to be 6 and carefree!!!!!!

The Valentine's stuff is now in full display there. Heck, New Year's hasn't even arrived and we are working on Valentine projects! Lots of cute things to make. Below is today's project that she created with only a little help at the end from me. Kept her busy and of course there is glitter and gems on it. That's my girl!

Ode To A Stamper's Wife

I found this poem today and thought it was quite fitting. I wonder if my husband thinks like this at times?

Ode to My Wife.
By Author Unknown.

She learned to stamp on Monday
Her embossing was quite fine.
She forgot to set out dinner,
So we went out to dine.
She brayered backgrounds Tuesday
She says they are a must.
They really were quite lovely
But she forgot to dust.
On Wednesday it was birthday cards
She says that chalking's fun.
Shading, blending, and watercoloring --But the laundry wasn't done.
Her card swap was on Thursday
Using green and blue and red;
I guess she really was engrossed,
She never made the bed!
It was shaker cards on Friday
Using techniques she just adores,
But she never seemed to notice
The crumbs on all the floors.
I found a maid on Saturday!
My week is now complete
My wife can stamp the hours away;
The house will still be neat.
Well, it's already Sunday,
And my forehead's feeling damp.
I cursed, I raved, and I ranted -- The MAID has learned to stamp!

Christmas Eve

The big day is almost here. The kids have been running around like crazy and getting themselves all worked up into a frenzy. The night was clear and chilly tonight so we all bundled up and went out for a walk to enjoy the lights and tire out the kiddies a little wink wink :-)

Check out what my BFF made for me and what a treat they were after working part of the day. They are called Beehive (Ulky) Czech cookies and completely yummy. I had mentioned that I worked with someone who made these volcano cookies and just loved them. Well it turned out they were Beehive cookies and this co-worker would never give up the recipe. So my good buddy took it upon hereself to find out the recipe for me.

They are made with a little unique metal beehive mold which apparently you can only get in Czech. Lots of work went into these little yummies and they are delicious.

Here is a recipe for them and I must try to make these myself one day~

Recipe for Beehive (Ulky) Czech cookies:
Outside Layer
4 boxes of vanilla wafers (3 boxes crushed very finely)2 c. powdered sugar3 sticks unsalted butter, soft12 T. milk, room temperature6 T. cocoa12T Brandy or Cognac (I understand the Czech have a special baking liqour that is not as strong as our brandy)Mix all the ingredients with your hands and refrigerate overnight. Keep the dough COLD while you are working with it. Cream Filling1 c. granulated sugar2 sticks + a bit, unsalted butter, soft1 T. Vanilla sugar 15 T. Brandy or Cognac (same note as above re: liqour)3 egg yolksPOWDER SUGAR YOUR MOLD EACH TIME! Press dough firmly into mold leaving a hole in center for cream. HOLD MOLD TIGHTLY CLOSED while you are working. Add cream filling with teaspoon and level off with a knife. Unmold onto a vanilla wafer. Repair or redo as needed

The kids get to open one present on Christmas Eve as a tradition in our house. My brother and I did this as kids and was fun. Kaylin opened a gift from a good friend of ours and it was Fun Foam. We we all had fun tonight making little creatures from it. Neat stuff and it was fun to do as a group. Check out our little creations.

The Count Down is On!

Only days away from Santa's arrival and the kids are getting worked up! Kaylin really is sooooo excited that I am sure she won't sleep on Monday night!
Brayden on the other hand is excited but worried that Santa is not going to come thru and bring him that Playstation 3 that he really must, gotta just have or he'll die thing. The only thing on this list this year by the way and I won't even mention it's price tag :-) Thankgoodness I got one early as I don't think you could get one at this point. Yesterday we decorated gingerbread cookies and had a fun time doing this. Check out our creations. What do you think? Apparently the one with the big red lips is me according to Brayden. Aren't I pretty? I was yummy too as he ate me on the way to the mall in the car today!

The Christmas Concert

So December 18th was the kid's school christmas concert. This year the kids are eachother's buddy class so they ended up being in the same performances. They sang "One Little Candle" and "It Must Be Santa". It is always fun to see the kids in their "sunday best" and singing their little hearts out for all the Mums, Dads, and Grandparents in the audience.

My kids sounded great and had a fun time too. I don't have an acutal picture of the kids singing, I was too busy videotaping and besides, they were on opposites from eachother! But here is Kaylin in her classroom before going on stage. She sparkled like crazy in her outfit and looked wonderful. Brayden being the typical boy did not care about what he was wearing but looked good too!

This is our beloved Grade 1 teacher Mrs. Gordon. She is just short of being amazing..no actually she is amazing and we just love her. Brayden had her as well for Grade 1. We are quite blessed that she is teaching Kaylin this year. Fingers crossed we can only hope for Grade 2 with her as well !!! XXXXXXXXX

The Birthday Party!

So the party went well and we had 7 of Kaylin's friends attend. We had the party from 5:00-7:00pm which was a great hour becuase we were the last party of the day and had the gym really to ourselves. Even the adults got in on the action by jumping in the foam pit. The cake worked out well. Kaylin decided on a cupcake cake. Very cute, but we are still eating the leftover cupcakes! Turned out to be a great time for all.

A birthday on the horizon!

The Kitten is about to turn 6 soon which means=Birthday Party plans!

She has chosen 11 of her classmates to attend her party at a local gymnastics center.

Here are the invitations I have made for her and do you think she is starting to get excited? Put it this way..the 15th can't get here soon enough for her!! I do like the way the invites turned out. I am quite happy. I sure the boys that are invited will just love the swavorski crystals on them! Oh well!!!

So look what I woke up to Saturday?

Yep SNOW! The kids were thrilled to wake up to the snow falling on Saturday morning. It snowed all day Saturday and Sunday. We are back to the good old rain now and it has pretty much taken all of the snow with it but we had 2 days of fun!
It really did put everyone in the Christmas spirit and all you had to do was look around and see all the Christmas decorations that were being put up. Our street is pretty well lit up now. On our house, more lights than usual this year and of course they are all LED Noma lights. Nothing but the best lights for the electrician in this house. Looks great!

Gotta say thanks snow for coming on a weekend and not making a nightmare for us commuters on Monday morning!!

Fall photos......

Finally we have had some nice days....which really just means NO RAIN! We have even seen some SUN!!!!!! (shocking! I really should'nt complain yet. The rainy season is just starting!! ;-) After B's soccer game on Saturday, I got some shots of the kids playing with the leaves. Such a treat for them to just grab some dry leaves and throw them in the air or really more fun it throwing thema at eachother!!!!

Halloween 2007 Whewww...it was busy!

But a great time had by all. The weather held out nice for us rainy Vancouverites! Little bit of drizzle for about 5 mins and that was it. We even managed to have a great neighbourhood display of fireworks too at the end of the night. All the kids were decked out in glowsticks, hot chocolate and sparklers too! B & K were so excited for Halloween this year. It seemed like the days leading up to the big event were filled with parties and other fun events!

K had a little party with Sparks and she was dressed at the Bratz Bat. Gotta have some glamour to the costume for my girl. The group (all 14 of them) decorated pumpkin cookies with yummy candies and sang songs and basically got exicted for the big night. B won 1st place in a contest at the daycare for the best original pumpkin drawing. The principal came in a selected first, second and third and he WON! He was so excited. His prize for winning 1st place was a mircoscope. So this weekend we are going to inspecting lots of things. I was quite the proud Mom!

For Halloween, we let Brayden and his best buddy Al do some trick or treating on their own together. Just on our block and they had to do a check in with us at the house. It wasn't that crazy busy so really we could still see them, but they don't need to know that do they? He was so thrilled to have some breathing room from the parents. K on the other hand was an animal. She did more house then the boys. They ended up taking a break and getting warm, but watching Transformers on our couch, mean while, K and Dad and still running from house to house. I was very proud of my girl. Lots of please's and thank you's. She was a Devil and every time I looked at her I started to giggle because she really did look like a little man. That mask was so funny. It is really just fabric but it looks so real. Here is a shot of her at her finest just before we headed out to Trick or Treat. At the end of the night, 2 bags of candy later, hot chocolate and fireworks watched she was begging to go to bed!

All in all, it was a good night and the kids had fun!

Long Lost Recently Found Again Friend Birthday Card!

This is a special birthday card.

I am going to be sending it to a Long Lost Recently Found Again Friend. She was like my best buddy in middle school (Grade 7 &8) and then off to highschool we went. I ended up moving away in grade 11 but by grade 12 we had just gone our separate ways. Thought about her lots over the years and now thanks to Face Book we have reconnected. Wow, after about 18 years how things how changed, how our lives are different yet similar. We live across the country from each other now, but it has been fun to reconnect. I bet she has know idea that I have always remembered her birthday. I hope she will be surprised. I think I will tuck a Starbucks card inside so she can have a coffee/tea and think of me.

Been Busy....

Friday night was my monthly get together with my Stamp Club. Check out the cute projects I made. My Demo Carrie is so creative and it is fun to learn new techniques. This month we focused on the Halloween theme and made this cute criss cross card with invitation. Quick and easy to make. I think that I will make "K's" birthday invitation using this technique. Just something a little new and different than the usual invitation style.

Gotta love the SU printed hallowee paper. So vibrant are the colours. This card above is the waterfall card. Little more tricky to do...you pull the ribbon and the little mini cards fold out. This next little mini card is my pride and joy of all the things I have made this past weekend. I just love this stamp. The best part was that it cost me .90cents at Michael's!. Lucy me..all the Halloween stuff was on sale and the stamps were too! I used my cuttlebug embossing folder - bloom dots, my scallop punches and my SU markers for this card. I am really pleased how it turned out. I will probably make a few more of them to give to some of my co-workers.

The next card (hey, I told you I was busy this weekend!!) is made using a brass template and embossing paste. Easy but more time consuming as you are waiting for drying time. This card features my new stamp....the faux stitching. No more using my sewing machine now!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It is Thanksgiving out on the rainy west coast and it is a perfect time for your son to play in a Soccer Tournament! Oh but he had fun, played goal and made some saves so he was happy.

Here is a card I made at my SU Demo's house on Friday night. The pumpkin is stamped on watercolour paper and coloured in using my aquapainter. Fun to use it. Little bit of masking on the pumpkins. I am pretty pleased with the end result.

Happy Thanksgiving To All!

She Shoots...she scores!!

Yep..the ball has dropped and the season is on. Both of my kiddies are playing this year and it is "K's" first year ever, so needless to say she was very excited when she got her jersey. We had soccer both days this weekend plus team photos for each. Busy busy. The boys play on Saturdays. We travelled to Maple Ridge for "B's" game. They did not win but heck it was their first game as a team and they are still "gelling" together! We lucked out with the weather as it was to rain both days. "B's" legs were bothering him again. I have made an appointment with a phsyiotherapist to get him checked out. So we will see what it up there. He has a great coach and his teammates seem really neat. He is enjoying it again after a year off.

"K's" game was today. The girls play on Sundays and was at 10:00am. She was a little nervous but held up great. She is going to be a great player, I can feel it. She just has to figure out how to run and kick the ball at the same time. She has 6 other girls on her team and at this age 5, they play 3 from each team at a time. So they all don't get worn out I suppose. She loved the half-time...you get a snack!

She did really great and scored a goal. At first ref called it foul but they ended up letting it go, so we take that at a goal. She was excited but more disappointed they did not win. Gonna have to work on that. I kept telling her that it is about having fun but she is stuck on the "win" thing.

After the game, we went home, had some lunch and then off to La Senza Girl. "K's" favourite store in the mall. Hey.. I had to reward for the goal!

It's That Time Again....The Canucks have taken the ice!

I could smell the popcorn, taste the pretzels and hear the cheers of the crowd. It's Hockey Time Again in Vancouver!

I was at the opening exhibition game last night with our beloved Vancouver Canucks and the Stanley Cup Champs....the Ducks! My employer has season tickets :-) and often shares with the employees. My HR co-worker won them in a raffle so she took me! They are awesome seats and should be at $95.00 a ticket! Nice and close to the ice. Even though the Canucks lost in over-time, it is was a great night. Did I mention that parking is $17.00!

It is great getting back into the game. I am surrounded by Canuck fans at work, so I have no choice to like them. I am a hockey fan however, being from Toronto. My beloved Borje Salming will always be my number #1 hockey favourite!

The talk has already started at work. Who is at training camp, who won't make the cut. Who makes too much money. Who needs to be traded and this is just after the 1st exhibition game. Heck it doesn't even count! Ahhh but that is true fan support isn't it?

Look Mom....anything missing???

So we are all in the car, heading to the big city, gifts all wrapped, drive thru burgers being munched when "K" says...hey I lost my tooth! Being the scrapbooking Mom I am...I had my trusty G7 camera with me and snapped away.

We were off to visit a girlfriend who has just brought home her twin baby girls. They were acutally born in June but being so preemie, they had to stay in the hospital until about 10 days ago. Darling babes that is for sure. They are getting bigger and currently weigh about 6lbs, 9oz. I kept thinking that the Love Cat is this weight!

While I hold one of these precious twins in my arms, I think......Ahh..those days so long ago for me. I was remembering back to the powdery fresh smell of my babies, snuggling content little ones, so peaceful and happy and then I gave my head a shake! Yikes, those 3 am feedings, what seemed like contstant diaper changes, more feeding, crying cranky moments.

Oh....but it was all worth it! I hand the twin babe back to her Mom and I steal a peek at my baby now 5 1/2 itching for Grade 1 to start, now one less front tooth, faux blue vest in all looking so grown up!

Soon she'll be singing the front teeth for Christmas song. I can hear it now!!!!

ATC's

I love these little pieces of art. Quick and easy to make and so many possibilities. Mary Engelbreit - one of my absolute fav's. Here are tonight's little creations.

Back to Work

Yep..the summer holidays are over, but I am well rested and refreshed. Bring on the employee issues...I am ready! :-)

I have vowed to create at least a couple of projects a week. Gotta stay creative and besides with all the supplies I own for stamping and scrapbooking, I should be just churning out the stuff!! If my husband only knew what exactly is in my craft room I would probably be divorced or made to sell something for a mortage payment! Oh well, thank goodness he enjoys looking thru the scrapbooks. Oh yeah...guess I better create some more pages in them or he is gonna start with the questions!!

These are cards I quickly whipped up. I am sending the "Happy For You" card off to a friend who's twin baby girls are FINALLY coming home from the hospital. I just love the Daisy D Girlfriend papers. The two little mini cards are just made from some Basic Grey scraps. I am really loving lime it seems these days.

I am off to create!

Our Seattle Adventure

So I am on a week's holiday from work. Whoo Hoo!

We decided to venture on down to Seattle for a couple of days to see the Woodland Zoo http://www.zoo.org/ What a zoo! The kids loved it and then we were off to the Aquarium as well. http://www.seattleaquarium.org/ I loved the open air part of the Aquarium. Right down at the waterfront and it was so interactive. The kids could touch all sorts of little sea creatures. Truly neat. I would totally recomend it to everyone.

Pike's Market was cool and had something for everyone. The market is celebrating it's 100 year anniversary by placing 100 decorated pigs around the city. http://www.pigsonparade.org/ The kids had a blast searching for all the pigs we could find.

The weather was super, warm and sunny and we even managed time to shop at the outlets stores just north of Seattle on our way home. B was very happy. They have a DC outlet store. Need I say more....he is the proud owner of 2 more shirts and now a couple pairs of socks. Oh yes, and a Quicksilver store too. More shirts to be purchased!