Happy New Year.....

and the January 2009 kit reveal!! So, here's the kit :

And here's the projects that I've created with it so far :

I must admit, that working with pink (coral ;D)??? Not really my favorite thing to do, but I loved the patterned paper in this kit, especially the one from Sassafrass Lass. I think that pink and chocolate brown go so well together. I also loved that there were so many different colours in the kit this month, and I found that many things from previous SPS kits worked well with it too.

Tonight we were invited over for dinner by our good friends Ricky & Alissa & I'm looking forward to it!! Not only because I don't have to cook (sorry Ricky) but also because we haven't visited in a bit, so it will be nice to get caught up again. I'm not sure how late we'll be staying, it kind of depends on the kids and how tired they are. We have *gasp* let them stay up until midnight before, but we'll just play it by ear this year. Hmmm, maybe this calls for a nap time this afternoon???

From my family to yours, have a Happy New Year and all the best in 2009!!

So Excited.....

that my first ever Sweet Pea Vine challenge is up on the blog!! So silly to get excited about something so small, really. Jenn and I did a picture exchange for this challenge, and tonight was the first night I got to see the LO that she did for me....

AND IT ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!

I was so excited when I scrolled down to see it - it's just perfect! Thanks again Jenn, it was so fun to do the challenge with you, the WalMart picture printing fiasco notwithstanding!! ;)

Check out the challenge when you get a minute & take a peek at all the others for the month too!! I hope you'll join in and play along with us - you could win yourself an awesome little prize!!

Have a great night!!

Whew, it's over.....

for another year!! I love getting together with my families, but two Christmas-es, two days in a row can be draining!! Thank goodness we got to sleep in this morning. Today I might brave the weather and go boxing day shopping with my mother-in-law, but I'm slightly afraid of getting run over by some maniac armed with a shopping cart.

Otherwise, we're just gonna hang out at home, eat up the leftover bird and stuffing, watch a movie or two and enjoy each others company.

Happy holidays everyone and wishing you all much joy and happiness in 2009!!!

Two Surprises today.....

first - that we're having company tonight! My brother Mike and his wife Krissy are coming to spend the night here, and it's because my other brother Jon, his girlfriend Christine & their little guy Aydon are coming to my Mom's place to have Christmas with us tomorrow! We were not expecting J&C to come for Christmas at all! My sister Monica and her hubby Rick are already there, so there's no room at the inn for M&K. I'm so glad to have all my siblings "home" for Christmas this year.

Second - my January kit came today!!! Yippee! I really wasn't expecting it to come until next week, so now I have some new goodies to play with over the holidays.

Yesterday my hubby came home with my Christmas gift - a new laptop!! We talked about it, but I wasn't expecting it until next year. I moved all my pictures over to the laptop, and now I can scrapbook & journal, because the printer has been moved upstairs with the laptop, which has a new permanent home in my scrapping area. One day I'll post a pic (when it's not a mess) so you can see where I create.

Off to scrap the night away, have a good one!

After the Storm.....

here's what it looks like at our house :

It took an hour to get ourselves dug out. Now, here's the kicker - THERE"S MORE COMING!!!!! Yuck. Have I mentioned yet how much I love to shovel the snow???

Have a great day!!

The Cantata.....

has been cancelled for tonight & moved to next week Sunday. That's probably a good thing, since the weather is horrible today. We're getting a TON of snow again. *insert huge sigh here* There's at least 10 inches of snow on the van and we only got home from church 5 hours ago! Have I mentioned yet how much I love to shovel?? Although with this amount of snow, hubby getting the snow thrower out is definitely in order. My sister is supposed to be coming tomorrow from Timmins, so I hope the weather clears up before then.

We had Christmas with the kids today! It was such a good time watching them open each gift & I was right, they liked everything we got. Glad to get that part over so that now our focus on Christmas day can be Jesus' birth instead of the presents. Here's some pics from the present opening session :

Stay warm & have a great night!

Finally Finished.....

my layout for this weeks colour combo. I'm still so uninspired lately!!! I think I've been bitten by the Bah Humbug. Not totally happy with how it came out (didn't I say that last week too??), but here it is :

Only one more day until school is done for 2008. Tomorrow night the kids are presenting their annual Christmas play - 3 Wise Men and a Little Baby. I hear talk of Elvis being in the building?? but otherwise I haven't let the kids tell me anything - I want to be surprised. I am now officially done work until 2009!!

I finished wrapping Christmas presents last night - whew! what a big job - so glad that I only have to do that many at a time once a year!!

Saturday morning Renee and I have a long practice for our cantata - I think that the readers are going to be there too! It will be nice to see it all come together. Since Renee has a solo, I'm going to get hubby to take some pics of the presentation - you'll have to stay tuned for the resulting layout!! =D

Have a great day!

Yet Another.....

snow day today. This time it's the icy back roads that have kept the buses off the road. Not too bad today though, because hubby has the day off today & so I was able to get out by myself this morning! Plus I don't have to go to work tonight either!!

Today was my monthly meeting with a bunch of other Christian women in my area. It was so good to focus on Christ's birth instead of all the other Christmas rigmarole. We listened to the Christmas story from Mary's perspective & as a mother I can relate to the story a little better now. I loved it!!

So after my meeting, I went to the post office twice - once to send out a package (yep, that's for you Jenn!!) and then again to check for lost keys. There's nothing quite like waiting in post office Christmas lineups....twice!! I was at the scrap booking store twice today too - first, to get some goodies and then (you guessed it) back to check for lost keys. I checked the van after all that extra walking back and forth & there they were - IN THE IGNITION, with the doors unlocked!!! How stupid eh?? Plus, after all that, I got a parking ticket for an expired meter. Yep just the icing on the cake. Ugh!!!!

Well, off to keep working on my LO for this weeks colour combo! Have a great night!

Good Times.....

were had at the Snow Wonder show today. The kids really enjoyed themselves. The cast was mostly made up of kids from our local primary and secondary schools, so it was neat to see all the local talent. Here's a pic of us theatre buffs :

I hope we'll be able to go to another show like that again!

I also finished up my Christmas shopping today too!! Woo Hoo!! So glad to get that out of the way - I hate shopping when it's super busy in the stores. I always get stuck behind the one person who is walking slow with no way to get around them!! This time of the year I just want to get in, get out & go home.

Have a great night all!!

I Tried.....

this recipe. And it really does look and taste like apple pie. Weird, I know. But wouldn't be fun to tell your family you made pie & keep them guessing as to what kind it was??? You should give it a try sometime! Next time I make it, I'm doubling the filling part - I love a pie with a lot of filling and I think that this one just didn't have enough in it.

Have a great day!

I Love My Neighbours.....

they're so good to me!!! Yesterday morning my neighbour Linda, who owns this absolutely beautiful Bed & Breakfast across the street from me called to see if I would like FREE tickets to see the Snow Wonder show at the Roxy Theatre downtown!! So of course I said yes!!!! Richard is working this weekend, so the kids and I will be seeing the matinee on Saturday afternoon. SO grateful for the distraction. One of these days I'm going to ask to take some pics of the kids and our family in the backyard of the B&B, it's so lovely there!!

Plus my neighbours Paul and Bob make sure that the end of my driveway & the sidewalk to my mailbox (always a bonus when I'm stalking the mailbox for a SPS kit) are always clear when Richard isn't home to do it himself. I really appreciate the extra help! I love living on this street.

There's only one week of school left before Christmas holidays!! I can't believe it's gone by so quick. I am however, looking forward to the break from work - this week I'm really hating my job.

Yesterday I finished up this LO for Combo #99 over at the Color Combos Galore site. I'm not totally happy with it, but it turned out ok. I've been kind of uninspired lately.

Well, off to start the Christmas cleanup!! Have a great day!!

99%.....

done!! Woo Hoo!! I went out yesterday & braved the "festive" Christmas shopping crowds and managed to get most of it done. I forgot to get one thing, so I have to go back again, but I have plenty of time. While I didn't get a huge pile of presents, I tried to pick things that suit each one of our kids. I always worry a bit about whether or not the kids will like what I picked, but I think I did OK this year.

Tonight I'm finishing up my LO for my first Sweet Pea Vine challenge. The challenges can be just about anything - a sketch, a word, a colour or a technique, and there's a new one every week. Plus, everyone that completes a challenge gets their name put into a draw for the monthly prize! You don't need to be a subscriber to complete the challenges, either! Here's a peek at last months prize :

If you've never played with us, you should check it out!!! It just might help you to break out of your box!!

Have a great night all!!

Another.....

snow day today. Who'da thunk it? Have I mentioned how much I hate winter and the inevitable snow shoveling that goes with it?? Oh well, that means no watching the clock today, and I don't have to get out of my PJ's if I don't want to (and I really don't!! =D).

We got the tree up & I finished decorating it yesterday. The kids helped by decorating the bottom half. I have to say that I think it looks pretty good - what do you think?

Now I just have to finish decorating the rest of the house. I'm not really a decorating person, mostly I don't think about it at all, but this year I'm hosting Christmas dinner for my side of the family, so I think it should look a little Christmas-y for that day.

We had another choir practice last night (in spite of the horrible weather), and I think it's finally starting to come together! It's going to be beautiful.

Ethan's class at school is reading this book as a group. Last night I saw a commercial for the movie!! It opens December 19Th, so hopefully it will come to our city & we'll be able to go see it. I actually read the book yesterday & it's a really cute story. The author of the book also wrote Because of Winn Dixie. I really like her style of writing, because it gets the reader thinking, which is good for kids.

This weekend I'm hoping to finish all my Christmas shopping; I'd say I'm 75% finished. It'll be a record for me if I do get it done, I'm almost never finished this early!!

Well, I'm off to tackle the mountain of laundry and then maybe I'll actually do some scrapping today!! Have a great weekend all!

Laughing Out Loud.....

so I looked up from my book yesterday afternoon, and this is what I saw :

Yep, those are our Christmas stockings she has on her feet....totally made me giggle, so I snapped a few more shots to file away for future LO's.

I still haven't got the tree up, but I might make another stab at it later today. I'm just not feeling very Christmas-y yet this year. The kids however, are desperate to decorate. Since I don't have to go to work tonight, I should probably put a greater effort into getting started.

Have a great day, all!!

It's Report Card Day.....

today. It's hard to believe the first term of school is already done & that there's only 12 more days of school left before Christmas vacation!! It seems that time keeps going faster and faster. The kids (much to their chagrin) went to school today -YAY!!

I'm feeling a little better today thanks to massive doses of vitamin C and echinacea. Today I might even attempt to do something scrappy!!

I dug out all the Christmas decoration boxes last night - maybe today I'll finally get the tree up - I'll see how I feel this afternoon. Right now, I'm going to make some more coffee, pop a few vitamins, and relax.

Have a great day all!!

First Snow Day of the year.....

today. I'm glad in a way, though, because I feel terrible. Sore throat, runny nose, tired...you know what I'm talking about. No school today means I don't have to go to work tonight, so I'm glad for that. I think it's the road conditions that made them pull the buses off the road, not weather, although it's supposed to be nasty here for most of this week.

I don't think I'll be doing anything scrappy today, I'm just going to rest and try to get better.

Have a good day, all!

Peace and Quiet.....

is rare these days; so it makes me all the more appreciative of it when it comes. Yep, you guessed it - the kids are gone for the night!! (Thank goodness for grandparents that live close by!!) Tonight is Richard's staff Christmas party, so we're really looking forward to a night out for the two of us. We're going to have dinner & see a Yuk Yuks show, so that should be fun. He's been working at that Meridian branch for almost a year, and this will be the first time that I'm meeting his fellow staff members! That's what happens when the branch is an hour away, I guess.

I haven't done anything scrappy since Thursday *gasp* - I'm all scrapped out for the week I think. I've managed to conquer the mountain of laundry in the living room & the house looks somewhat decent again, so I've been relaxing with a book or two to pass the time.

Richard (with the help of his Dad) replaced a couple of older windows in the porch today - now there's only one old window left to replace in the whole house! I'm going to miss the old ones this winter though, they were double paned and the space between them was just big enough to hold a can of pop - kinda like an extra fridge!!

Now off to get ready - have a great weekend!!!

DONE!!.....

all my December LOs!! Woo Hoo!! I didn't think that I'd get them done in time, but by not cleaning the house all week long, I managed to get them done!

Here's a peek at the December kit :

And here's the pages and projects I made with it :

You should take a minute and head over to the December Gallery to check out what the rest of the Design Team did with the kit, there's so many awesome ideas there!! Now I'm off to attack the messy house and then I have to get ready to head over to choir practice again tonight!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my State side friends!!

Yipee!!!.....

My December kit arrived today at noon!! I've started playing, and already have 2 LOs on the go! So excited and a bit nervous at the same time because I really want to do a good job.

This past weekend we watched Wall-e with the kids - SO super cute!! If you get the chance and you haven't seen it yet, you should give it a try. Also, as a bit of a spoiler, my sister (a HUGE Twilight fan) went to see Twilight the movie this weekend in the theatre. She says that it's awesome & and she'd go see it again. I want to read the books first, so I guess I'm waiting until it comes out on DVD.

Since I was still waiting for the kit this morning, I played with the November kit a bit more & made this for the Nov. 15 Blessings Challenge over on the ScrapFaith blog & for half of Challenge #4 on the SPV (I just realized - no folded paper!! eek!):

Now, back to work some more with the December kit!! Have a great night all!

Swappin'.....

So, I signed up for my very first swap ever tonight over at Renee's blog. Jenn told me that I had too. No really, I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with!! I already have something in mind for it too!

Today was a quiet day with not much happening. Last month Richard flew out to Alberta to visit his Grandma and came back with this game. We spent some time playing it this afternoon & wonder of wonders, I managed to win a game!! That almost never happens because I'm just not very good at strategy. The kids really love to play it & it's kind of neat. I'm loving that they're finally getting old enough to start playing board games with. You can find out more about it here.

I spent some time tonight looking into flights, trains & buses to Ottawa. I really want to go see Jon, Christine & Aydon, but don't want to drive the 8 hour trip there by myself. The train seemed to be the best deal, but still requires driving into Toronto & for me that's scary!! I can drive a big 72 seat school bus loaded with primary students, but I'm a chicken when it comes to driving on the major highways. Go figure, eh? Anyways, I'm still trying to work out all the logistics of the trip, too, and right now it's not looking too hopeful. Sometime in the new year might end up working out better for me.

Now I'm gonna go dive into a good book!
Have a great night, all!

Halfway Done.....

my Christmas shopping that is. Our families changed things up a bit this year & so we're not buying presents for the adults; just the nieces and nephews. Which is good, because that's easy, having only 1 niece and 3 nephews to buy for. Add in my 3 kids and that's still only 6 people instead of 10. In less than an hour, I've finished half of the shopping and at only ONE store!! Whew. It's going to be a WebKinz & gift card Christmas that's for sure!

So, the December kit hasn't come yet, so it's fingers crossed for Monday now. I'm starting to stress a little that I'll be late with my projects for my first month on the design team!!!

On a happier note, my oldest daughter Renee won first place for her colour poster in the local Royal Canadian Legion contest. It's her second year in a row!! She received a certificate and a small cash prize. Last year we let her spend a little of her prize money on whatever she liked & we did the same this time too. So, our WebKinz family's newest member is an orca whale named Whistler.

We got MORE snow again last night - UGH!! Have I mentioned how much I love to shovel yet? It's bright and sunny today, though, so the kids will be sent out to get some fresh air while I finish up my LO for this weeks Color Combo. I love the challenge of mixing together colours you wouldn't normally think to do.

Then I might starting cleaning up around the house a bit and *gasp* get out the Christmas decorations. Early this year for me, usually I'm not starting until after Dec 1st. It'll be a good chance for me to purge out some stuff though, as that closet is really getting full of stuff that never gets used.

Off to play, have a great day all!!

Still Waiting.....

So, my December kit hasn't come yet. Disappointing, because I'm so excited to get started & I have all my LO's planned in my head. However, I did play with the November kit this week, and I finished up this LO yesterday:

This is my hubby and I on our 11Th anniversary. Good friends of ours happened to get married on that day, and Richard was the best man. So not only did we get to get away to Niagara Falls for a kid free weekend, we now get to celebrate our anniversary every year with 2 awesome people!!! I've been saving that LUCKY card since April just for this LO - hoping that we'd get some nice pics at the wedding. Their photographer Stacy was gracious enough to shoot some pics. Her work is awesome!! As a gift for our friends I finally finished up these (more pics from Stacy here) :

Of course, the making these LO's totally necessitated the purchase of the entire Ambrosia line..... =D After we checked out the price of having custom frames made ($80 + EACH!!! *gasp*) hubby helped me make some shadow box frames for them. I think they turned out OK & our friends liked them too. I was glad for that, because I worried they wouldn't like them.

Choir practice went well last night, we have to learn a total of eight (yep, that's right *8*) songs. The choir leader said that this will be the whole service, so now even more pressure is on!!!

We got more snow overnight & I hate it. I'm now going to be cold for the next 6 months. I hate winter and shoveling. I suppose if I skied I'd feel better about it, but that would require being active & I wouldn't want that..... I might be inclined to break out the skates once or twice this year, though, since the kids really like to skate.

Well, fingers crossed that my kit comes today; I don't have to work this weekend, so that gives me lots of time to sit & play!!

Have a great weekend, all!!

Well, I did it.....

here it is - my first post on my brand new blog.

I have started it because I was recently named a 2009 DT member for Sweet Pea Scraps an awesome kit club that I adore!! Everyone else on the team has one, so I felt the pressure... Just kidding. =D I want to be able to document this exciting time in my life & I know that there's going to be stuff that I'll forget (I blame my Momnesia for that). I'll also probably post about my regular everyday life with hubby, kids, my job & maybe even share a LO or two if I can figure out how to add a picture here.

I suppose I should explain the title a bit - it's not gross, just a play on a nickname that I've been stuck with forever. My husbands name is Richard, but his friends call him Ichy. Because I'm married to the guy, I'm stuck with Mrs.Ichy or sometimes Scratchy. (those who watch the Simpsons should recognize where that comes from)

I'm excited to say that I have a brand new nephew - Aydon Austin!! He arrived a week ago, and while I haven't held him yet (because he lives 8 hours away), he sure is a cutie patootie!! I'm for sure going to be making a LO or two about him! His mom Christine, says that he's a good baby & she and my brother Jon and Aydon are adjusting well to being a family. I remember those days & how tiring babies could be.

Tonight is choir practice at my church - we're singing a cantata(a series of songs with readings in between) for Christmas but the timing is important, so we're spending twice as much time getting ready for it. I sing soprano, so I worry about being able to hit those high notes. I can't read music so it's important for me to stand next to someone who's singing the same part as I am. My oldest daughter Renee is going to be singing a little solo in the middle of it with the choir, and I'm looking forward to that!! She's excited about it too.

So now I'm going to go see if my December kit has come today & hopefully I'll be able to play for awhile before heading out to go to work! Have a great day, all!!