catch up and a gift:-)

hi all, here's hoping you had a Wonderful Christmas:-) We sure did at our house, Santa came to visit - we enjoyed great food, I loved it that it was not so cold...all it all it was a nice holiday...and when this particular holiday is over, I feel like ORGANIZING!!! So scrapbook room was cleaned up (TRUST me - it needed it) We traded out a piece of furniture upstairs, and organized the kids movies...I guess they just don't know how to put them back in a case!!! Seriously, they were ALL out of their cases!! Mark cleaned up his side of the closet (now I look like a total pig...I guess that is tomorrows job:-)...something about bringing that stuff in makes me want to get rid of stuff, and organize more stuff...feeling the same way???  

Then there was finding time to play catch up...with my creating, so here are a few more pages in the Dec Daily:-)

still following the same principle of just documenting photos, not each and every day...some days have more, some days have none, and I am ok with that...as with any mini book, I work on each page, put it together and then do my final "Embellishments, details & journaling"  I kind of need to see the BIG picture before I totally am completed with a project...so these pages will probably all get a little something "Extra" by the time I am through....

That being said, I would be further along in this book if I had not decided to do another project...but what a fun Project it was!!  Tannis Drobot - who teaches at the store quite alot, came up with and taught a Flip Album recently...this class was a hit and people LOVED it...

I never took this wonderful class, but figured I could just 'figure" it out...so here is a small peak of what I came up with...

I will post a description of what I did and photos of each page shortly....I gotta go to bed so I have energy for our After Christmas sale in the WPG store tomorrow:-)  25% off the whole store:-)

p.s. will also post those recipes I promised shortly as well...there just is not enough time in a day!!

good night,

I hope you feel inspired!!

S

seriously falling behind...

so the goal was a documenting December...I can't even seem to do that!! The book is at this point -

the plan is to use, kraft cardstock - leftover journal covers from a journal class I did in Nov...

 30 journals - for 30 amazing Moms at my church:-)

- Lily Bee alphabets, Doodlebug stickers and a Doodle pop elf (front cover I think) - patterned paper from Bella Blvd - some ribbon...

I went with a 6x9 size - as that was the size of the journal covers, I did cut some 6x8 pages and a few 4x6 pages...turned some into pockets using sookwang tape - oh and I see now a little bit of Crate C-mas paper,is all cut up too - so I will be using that as well...as for accents/embellishments...not sure yet - I will see what is in my stash to use as I go along:-)

tonight I finally started to print some photos - once again, soo happy with my Canon Pixma 4600 series printer, awesome color on photos...I will say though I always read that you should use the photo paper by the same manufacturer as the printer - which I have been doing religiously...then I picked up a package of Epson photo paper in the 4x6 size because it was a super great deal, and oh my word - the QUALITY is AMAZING!!! I am a convert - the paper was thicker and just felt like a better quality photo, and the canon ink printed very well on it.

I placed the photos in the book, but did not adhere future pages yet...might change a photo size or paper as I go along - but for now everything is in order up until todays date...

at this point it was only 9pm - the night is still young soooo I began to play:-)

 Cover :-)

 the kids get 2 calendars - in the morning they open the Kinder surprise one from Grandma and Grandpa - in the eve they open the Karen Foster little drawers that I carried in the store...I need to take a pic of calendars to add to a future page!

 documenting the Winnipeg Grand Opening:-)

 We have an AMAZING group of friends - and we always celebrate Christmas with a turkey dinner, early in December - we take turns every year - the host makes the turkey & potatoes and everyone else brings everything else - all of our kiddies just LOVE celebrating too!!  This year - we went on a sleigh ride before supper, VERY cold but fun all the same:-)

are you documenting your Dec???

I hope you feel inspired!

S

inspiration comes from many places...

and does not always pertain to paper either!  When I have time, I like to dabble in all sorts of things, I always say if I would let myself I would be a "collector"of fabric - oooo all the lovely colors and patterns - I just love it!  And then flowers, I love those soo much (lucky for me my hubby knows that and get I blessed with them every so often)...and then there is decorating for Christmas!  I will be honest with you, I used to LOVE it!! Before kids, Mark and I would put lights all over the house inside and outside, I would do something different with lights, garland, wreaths and more every holiday season!  and then kids came along...and I will be honest with you, I just didn't have the time, or the energy to add decorating to the list on top of babies, diapers and more! I felt very overwhelmed with everything - I simply could not decorate and enjoy the same way I did.

Well it's good that life has it's seasons, and that as your family grows and changes, your energy and time changes with it.  This year, really for the 1st time in a long time, I felt like doing more than just putting up a tree in the house...In Nov I picked up the Christmas issue of Style at Home magazine and it had such lovely pictures in it...I was inspired, totally!  So on Monday morning, I headed over to Oakridge greenhouse and started to look around for some items to do up a few Holiday arrangements!
Seriously, fall has been pretty busy for me, so this is what they looked like before I started -

yes - they looked terrible, I had not even pulled out the dead flowers!! I am soo ashamed:-(

Anyways that was all about to change - with this bag of goodies!

now the red berries were from a past Christmas, the poplar branches, were from a floral arrangement I received in the past - I love to keep special things and "recycle" them in a new way.

So after some arranging and playing this is what I came up with!

the "after" shot of my front entrace...

I totally feel like this is soo much more of a representation of me and my family,

and it really was soo fun to do!

Thanks for taking this little journey of "no paper" with me today (there is a fabric ribbon around the one planter though!)

I hope you feel inspired!

S

Grand opening & Christmas Open House

what a lovely day - so many wonderful friends and family came on by - to create a project, or to have some yummy apple cider or a cookie or two:-) to come and meet the staff here at our new store on Meadowood, and to check out the fabulous products and classes we have to offer:-) 
just a few pics of the day -

wonderful homemade cookies - monster and shortbread made by my mom-in-law Marlene:-)

recipes coming soon!!

 some lucky ladies getting 1st dibs on those doorcrashers on Friday!

 I received an adorable visitor on Saturday:-)

Grandpa and Aubrey had to spin the wheel for Grandma as she bought something!

 

She won a magazine for Grandma!

Thank you, thank you! To all our FABULOUS customers, whether you made it out to the Open House or not, all your excitement and encouragement to me and the store means so much!  You are all so much more than customers, I consider you all friends and I hope you feel that each and every time you pop in to say hello. We hope to provide a friendly place full of inspiration for you for many years to come!!

S

Happy December!

what a wonderful month - the food, friendship and fun...it's a little busier than others but yet there is something so special and magical about these days leading up to Christmas!   Normally I do a December Daily - see previous posts here ....but this year I think I might go more into the "Documenting December" mode - my life has been uber-busy and I don't want to get stressed about scrapbooking everyday...that being said I usually prep and make up a "Skeleton book" ahead of time too...not this year - so it will be very simple and just hold onto the basics for me:-)  I will let my brain mull on that a little and see where it takes me.
I have been creating a little bit - getting ready for the Christmas Open house and Grand Opening for the Winnipeg Store - We did get in the OA Sidewalks line and since OA is my absolute fav - playtime was seriously in order:-) So here is a little layout about my friends boy Jackson:-)  Playing in the sand at one of my fav places in the world, Betula Lake....

I just want to say I am LOVING those "Sprinklers" - super fun!!

now it's time to go over to the Ranger site and Watch Timmy's 12 tags of Christmas video...my friend T and I are going to make each and every tag this year:-)  so who knows, they might make their way into my Documenting December book...

I hope you feel inspired!

S

I'm back!

and hopefully this will be the start of new ideas once again and not just renovations!  Some days lately I have been feeling like I am blogging about home improvement - that being said, you all need to see a bit more about how the Winnipeg store came together - so here you go!

our awesome customers, waiting to snap up those doorcrashers!

 Me working the till - Kathy asking me some questions!

 A Bird's eye view of the action!

 this used to be brown and all scratched up!! Look at it now - a great find at Value Village for $69.99!!

 our lovely classroom!

what a lovely day! be sure to check out the store soon!! we are just waiting for a few more racks and product and are planning for a Grand Opening and Christmas Open house on Dec 2nd & 3rd!