View from my Kitchen Window

     This morning as I looked out my kitchen window this is what greeted me!!!

I just love watching the birds at our bird  feeder, we get quite a few different species, but my favorite is the Cardinal, I just love their color and how they are always in pairs, kinda like us.

     Here are a couple more crafts I have been working on the last few days, couple of  versions of the paper trees. One is just my favourite Scenic Route Christmas paper, I cut it with my circle punch added some ribbon and colored baubbles, the other is a leaf punch from ek success, this time I used scraps of white cardstock and then sprayed the whole thing with the new Perfect Pearls mists by ranger, I used heirloom gold, and then I used some crochet lace and some baubbles covered in brown glitter. I have fun making these trees, I like that these styrofoam trees come in many different sizes, they look nice grouped together on my coffee table in my livingroom.

     Another fun craft I have been making are these cute little snowmen from styrafoam balls, I cover them in glitter and then decorate them. I have made 5 of them, but this is the only one left, the others I have given as hostess gifts when we have been invited out. I will have to make a few more, I think they would be cute in different sizes, kind of like a family of snow people.

Some Christmas ornament fun

     I've been having fun making some medallion Christmas oranaments this week. I used my Martha Stewart border punches, and her beautiful large Snowflake punch for the centers. I really like how they turned out, they add a nice vintage feel to our Christmas tree. They are fun and easy to do, I think I will make up a bunch of these to add to my gifts this year.

Callie

     I am finally getting around to posting a photo of Callie. Having a puppy around the house is just like having a baby....you cannot let them out of your sight for an instant, or they are getting into something, chewing something or making puddles....but it's all worth it, she is soooooo cute !!!! and she is pretty good too, she knows how to sit, walks pretty well on a leash, sleeps all night in her crate and she does go outside for most of her business, only a few accidents.  Courtney loves her !!! Callie is always happy to see you and she definately responds to positive reinforcement. Bo and Magic are still getting use to her, it may take some time though. Anyways here is her photo.

                                                           *Just look at those eyes!!!

December 4th

     Well  today is December 4th, I am working, so not much happening today Christmas wise for me... but Pete put up the outside lights, I love this, when driving down our street, and you see all the light, it really puts me in the Christmas Spirit. 

     We have our Christmas present arriving on Monday, she is 13 weeks old, and has come from faraway... She is a new puppy. We had to have our 16 year old dog Tara put down this summer, it was not easy, she was like one of my kids, Pete found it very hard, because he had to take her to the vet,  & actually Cole went with him, I could not.... she was such a great dog!! We miss her terribly, and Pete said no more dogs, it was very hard for him... but I think Courtney & I broke him down finally. I find it so loney without a dog. So we applied at an animal rescue center, and she came for a visit on Thursday, and we got appoved! Yeah !!  She comes from James Bay, and was rescued before she was shot for her pelt... I will not say anymore  on this subject, because it makes me sooooo angry!!

This is her photo from the animal rescue web-site. Courtney wants to call her Kalli, and I think it suits her.  I will up-load more photos later, when she arrives and I can take some. I am looking forward to Monday. It will be fun to have a puppy around the house, I cannot wait to see her personality... She is a Lab mix??  Just from her visit with us, she is super friendly and very smart!! 

2010 Christmas Manifesto

     This is the Christmas Manifesto for this year, for Journal your Christmas. I gives us something to remind us each day what our goals for the holiday season are.

December 1st-Journal Entry

     Today is December 1st, and as I have for the past two years, I am going to attempt to take part in the Journal your Christmas-December Daily. This year because it's my first year with a Blog, I have decided to make my journal entries on my Blog, instead of a paper journal. I will try to make an entry at least every couple of days...with my thoughts and maybe some photos.

     Today it does not look very much like Christmas or December for that matter, it is 8 degrees and raining. I am not a huge fan of snow and cold weather, but I love snow for the holidays. It does not feel like Christmas to me, if there is no snow on the ground, this has only happened once in my life time. About two years ago, we had no snow till the 26th of December and it really did not feel like Christmas at all, it felt more like Thanksgiving. I am sure within the next 24 days we will see some of the white stuff falling. Yesterday my Head Nurse posted our Christmas schedule, and I got lucky!!! She gave me 7 days off for Christmas, I am so happy, it's nice to have time off during the holidays to spend with family and friends. Well I guess that's all for today.  

      This is one of my first Christmas crafts for this year, I have seen these types of trees in all the gallerys, and I wanted to try one. I used my leaf punch and just punched a whole lot of leaves in three colors, easy to do when you are just sitting in front of the TV watching your favorite show. I used a styrofoam cone shape and glued on all the leaves, I like how simple it looks, but pretty too.

Vintage Photos and our History....

I have been collecting vintage photos from my family members, and I am determined to find out as much as I can about these photos and who is in them, and document all of this info.  My Mom recently gave me this photo of her as a little girl (about two years old) in the photo is her Grandfather, Aunt and Sister. The photo was taken in 1937, we are not sure who took the photo, but my Mom does not have very many photos of her as a child, because her family did not have a camera, so the only photos are from friends or other family members.  I am making separate scrapbooks for my family and one for Pete's family, I want to scrapbook all these memories while there still are people to tell the stories, so my children will know a little about their families past.

I made the flower with cardstock from Papertrey Ink,  I used a tutorial by Lisa Johnson ( she is on the design team for Papertrey Ink) where you die cut the flowers using Papertrey cardstock I used  Berry Sorbet because it matched this beautiful paper from Webster Pages perfectly and using their die (Beautiful Blooms #2 die) You distess the edges and layer them altogher to get this beautiful flower, I have only had luck making these flowers with Papertrey ink cardstock, no other cardstock works....I also used their Mat stack die #3 and Limitles layers die, oh and the button is also Papertrey Ink, matches the papers perfectly.  Thanks for  stoping by.

I am such a proud hockey Mom !!

    We spent this past weekend in Ottawa with my daughters hockey team, they were competing in the Gloucester annual hockey tournament. They were playing in a division two levels higher than their own, because of space availability. These girls wowed us, as parents !! They played their best hockey we have seen this season. Our coaches just wanted the girls to play some hockey at a competative level and do some bonding, but they did so much more, they competed at the level of some very physical and stronger teams, and ended up going to the finals, and coming home with a silver medal.  I am so  proud  of these young ladies. This has been a challenging season for Courtney as she is the youngest player on her team, she just turned 15 and she is playing with 16 & 17 year old girls. Courtney had a great weekend playing hockey and getting to know here team-mates, these are memories she will have forever, and so will I. Here is a photo I took of the team after they recieved their silver medals.

                                Congratulations West Island Midget A Royals !!!!

 

    

My Day with Jennifer McGuire !!!

     Yesterday I spent the day creating with Jennifer McGuire !!! My LSS hosted a full day of "Inking" classes with none other than Jennifer McGuire. She is simply amazing, so super sweet and talented!! We did a total of 24 projects, this class moved fast, but I learned so much, I never knew my inks could do all this...and the versatiltiy of my stamps too.  If you ever have the opportunity to take a class with Jennifer, I would highly recommend it!  Can you tell how excited I am about this experience, by the number of exclamation marks in this entry??  Thanks for stopping by, have a great day, everyone.

First Project Up-load

      Today is Rememberance Day, It is a day that is very close to our hearts here in our house. Both my husband and I have relatives who served and some who lost their lives in  both world wars. I think it is very easy to take for granted our freedom, we need to stop and think once in awhile about this, and remind our children how lucky they are to live here.

Today I am going to upload my first project to my new Blog,

This is a layout I did of my Daughters Highschool Flag Football team, when they won their Championship.Thanks for stopping by, have a good one.



My first post on my new ( first) Blog !!

Hi There, this is my first post on my new Blog, not quite sure about all of this, but it seems I have to get with the times, LOL as my kids would say.

I guess this Blog will be for both my crafty life and maybe little bits of my family life too. I will try not to get to personal, focus mostly on my passion for all things crafty, mostly paper craft, scrapbooking, cardmaking & stamping, with a little holiday crafts thrown in here and there.

This is a learning process for me right now, so if anyone has any suggestions for me, please feel free to share!!

I guess that all for today, Have a great one, everyone !!

Bon