Happy Holidays

From the Princess and her staff. Hope you all have a wonderful and safe holiday.

A different kind of pub...

As I've mentioned in previous posts I love graphic design. It's one of the reasons I enjoy scrapping, especially digital scrapping. My friends at work got to see some of my published stuff and suggested I photograph some jewellery in the store and design an ad. I'm kind of giddy that they actually liked it and are using it! Who knew all those hours playing with photoshop would actually pay off.

Santa redux

When we visited Santa two years ago he called Sid by name. She's never forgotten. Last year she was a little disappointed when he didn't. Although, she really liked the story he told her about taking Rudolf to the Toronto Zoo for a check up.
So this year she was wondering, eagerly I might add, if he would know her name. I explained that he had millions of children to visit every year and not to be sad if he didn't know her name.
So the big day arrives and I led her up the ramp to his castle and said quietly "Okay Sidney, it's your turn." Santa turned and said "Hi Sidney!" She gave the biggest smile and they had a great chat. After the pictures, she came over to us and I said: "Sid, he remembered your name, that's so cool". She looked at me straight faced and said "Mom he and I both heard you say my name first". Meaning: nice try Mom.

Christmas time fun

It's that time of year again, parties, candies, tree trimming and meltdowns.
We've seen Cinderella at the Elgin Theater, had a picture taken with Santa (more on that later this week!), and went to Sean's work's Kids Christmas party. I'm exhausted and still have a tonne of shopping to do and Xmas cards and presents to make.
Oh well...'tis the season!

Layout-a-palooza

This is my first layout for the Butterfly Crafts DT. Lot's of Basic Grey, Hambly and some cool chipboard my buddy Kate sent me. She's an awesome scrapper, an amazing friend and so knows what I like.
Our focus this time is to scrap someone who inspires us. I picked Sid since she reminds me daily, as only kids can to slow down and have fun.

The next two layouts are just for fun. I've had the pictures from the Rockton Fair sitting around since Thanksgiving. The trouble was I took a million shots and really needed to pair them down. The shots of Sid and Petal are the first I've printed from my new camera...hurray! I'm going a little nuts with the Urban Prairie Collection from Basic Grey, can you tell?

First challenge is up!

Butterfly Crafts first challenge is up! The theme this time is to scrap someone that inspires you. Come play along, you could win and be our guest designer next month.The layouts by my fellow DT members are awesome!
Check it out:
http://butterfly-crafts.blogspot.com/

Elfing ourselves!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

I've been tagged

Kate tagged me. I've never been tagged before so please be gentle!
Seven random facts about me:
1. I hate the feeling of popicles sticks against my teeth. Or wooden spoons.
2. My favourite flower is a Flowering almond. It's a tree that I stalk every spring.
3. I'm always early, hardly ever late.
4. I don't like most fruit and a REALLY hate bananas. Give me veggies any day.
5. I've had the same pillowcases for years. (I do wash them regularly, I just can't part with them!)
6. I make my bed before I get into it not when I get out of it. (mostly because Sean still sleeping)
7. I love to dance with Sid!

Thankful (warning: rather sentimental post ahead!)

As a general rule I tend to be a half empty glass kind of girl. I've spent a good few years of my life trying to change that. With that in mind, I've realized that this has been a good week. A darn good week. We didn't win the lottery or anything spectacular (well, I haven't checked my Super Seven numbers yet) but a number of good things have happened.
Sean got accepted into a management training program at work, which will help him add to his innumerable talents. He's such an awesome chef and this will help him round out his management expertise.
I got the final part of my promotion at work finalized (the unexpected raise part) and passed the probationary period. I also have my layout in Canadian Scrapbooker out in stores now(which was probably my most labour intensive layout ever and one of my favourites) and the acceptance into the aforementioned design team.
For me, as a former stay at home mom and before that, small business owner I'm not used to much praise (come to think of it there's striking similarities to both vocations). So the best part of the week was when my boss looked me in the eye and thanked me for doing such a good job.
One year ago I couldn't have imagined myself not just working in my chosen field, but doing well.
I'm thankful, more than I can say.

What's a girl to do on a snowy afternoon??

Design a logo that's what! Karen (the super sweet founder of Butterfly Crafts) mentioned she was open to some new logo ideas fro the blog, so I went to work in Photoshop. It was tricky at first since most of my downloaded graphics are copyright protected and not intended for websites. Then I remembered last spring I designed a digital kit (but was too shy to actually release it). So I had lots of goodies to play with to make this cute (I hope) butterfly logo. I love graphic design and if I ever win the lottery, I'm going back to school for it!

Colour challenge

I finally played along with Kristina's colour challenge. When I realized I had the exact colours in glimmer mist it was easy to think up a card. I went for a very non-traditional Christmas card. It's a nice break from the green and red I've been doing!
I used Tattered Angel's Glimmer mist in Fully purple and Tiger Lily. Bazzill card stock, doodlebug ribbon, Creative cafe snowflakes and a Making memories brad. You can find the challenge here: http://kwernerdesign.com/blog/2008/11/color-inspiration-31.html
Thanks for looking!!

Cool new news

I'm very excited to announce I'm part of the new design team at the brand new challenge blog "Butterfly Crafts".

You can find it here:http://butterfly-crafts.blogspot.com/
It looks like a great international team and we'll be having a great time creating. Check back soon for our first challenge!

New fabulous camera,new mediocre pictures

Finally bought a new camera...yay! I have no idea how to use it yet...boo! I am learning though. Here's a few shots from after school yesterday...she's such a ham. I actually scrapped tonight too...in paper...and then I went to add one last detail and wrecked the layout. Argh.

She sure knows...

how to make me feel like an old tired mother. We were in the bath tonight and I was washing my makeup off (yes, I still rarely get in the tub with her) and asked her if I had any mascara under my eyes.
"No Mom," she answers, "but you have big bruises under your eyes".
"Those would be my under eye circles," I reply.
"And the skin is kinda funny".
"That would be my wrinkles...sigh", I respond.
Thanks Sid, you are more honest than a mirror under fluorescent lighting. Lucky me!

This little birdy...

Here's a new baby card I made for a girl at work who just had the cutest baby!! It's embossed with cuttlebug embossing folders (swiss dots and birds and vines), stamped, coloured with copics and stickled.
Thanks for looking!

Good morning!

Happy November! (Really November needs to be more festive, don't you think?)
I'm really happy to announce I'm the guest designer for November at: http://edssketch.blogspot.com/
This is a neat newish blog for sketches that is based in Singapore. I got to know the DT co-coordinator Stephanie at Scrap in Style this past year and was thrilled when she asked me to do a layout for this month! So check it out and play along!

My other exciting news is I'm having a digi layout published with Scrapbook and Cards Today Magazine in December. That means I'll have two layouts coming out in December as I have a traditional layout in Canadian Scrapbooker too!
Thanks for letting me share the good news!

some kind of exciting stuff

coming in two days....(well I'm excited anyway!) In the meantime have a happy Halloween and take a peek at the princess on her first Halloween back in '03!

"Mom, you are...

a thumbs up so far, it's almost sideways. Which means you are awesome, theee best!" said Sidney when her Mom got her third bedtime drink of water instead of closing her bedroom door as she had previously threatened to do. This is when she realized empty threats worked much better when she was a Nanny since she did not have live with the child. Sigh.
These are a few recent layouts, probably the last I'll post for a while until I get a camera...boo hoo!

Photo shoot

So Sid and I pulled out our wigs and did a pre-Halloween photo shoot. She's going as Hannah Montana and I'm going as Lola Luftnagle (Hannah best friend's alter ego).
Sid just needs a few more rhinestones on her vest and we're all set.
Sally (very sadly) after the goofy self portrait I sent my camera off into the air by accident and it hit the floor with a sickening crash. There were no survivors.

Recent stuff:

A few digi layouts from the recent past!