Changes

As you'll see, some changes have been made to my blog. Thanks to Bevan, I now have a new blog header. But as I added the header and changed the template, I lost my links, etc... and at this point, I'm kinda frustrated, so they'll be back within the next couple of days!! Thanks for looking.

It's Friday

Well, it's finally Friday. This was my first full week back at work, and my goodness, did it seem like it lasted FOREVER!!! A month's vacation is wonderful, but it is soooo hard to get back into the swing of things. I'm off to the scrapbook store today for my regular day of work there, although I never think of it as work, because I get to do what I love there. Today is my first class there. I'm doing a little card class on Friday mornings. Just a couple of cards teaching rubber stamping techniques. Lots of fun for me. I had a productive week in terms of cardmaking. Here is some of what I got done:

The "Smile" card is my favorite. I love the bright colors and the buttons!! I got some pictures back yesterday, so hopefully I'll get to do some fun scrapbook layouts in the next few days. Michelle has sent me her pictures from our trip to NYC. She got some great pictures, and some that I don't have. Everytime I see those pictures it inspires me to scrapbook. I've gotten 3 NYC pages done so far I think.

In other news: I miss Frankie!!! She is just the cutest puppy ever. Mel said she is growing soooo fast, and I just feel like I'm missing it. I've decided I need a little weiner dog of my very own, but we just can't get one where we live now. No pets allowed :( Plus, I can't get one until I think of a clever weiner dog name like Mel has: Frankie "The Tank" Chickenweiner Burton. Anyways, better get going!! Gotta get to work!

Happy 2006!!

Just wanted to say Happy New Year. It's been a while since I posted again, but it's been busy. Christmas is sooooo busy. No time to enjoy things, too busy buying those last minute gifts!! Although it was very busy, it was great. I got soooo much stuff. Let's just say it was a good thing that Bevan and I both had our cars at home!! My car was full with Christmas stuff. I got a new set of pots and new dishes. I got a sewing machine and some scrapbooking stuff and a new Columbia jacket. They also got me Seasons 6 through 10 of "Friends" on DVD and "Lost" Season 1 on DVDPlus lots and lots of other stuff from my parents. Mel gave me a great French Press and a scrapbookable travel coffee mug (I must say, this is the perfect gift for me!!) Bevan gave me soooo much good stuff. He always manages to know just what to get me!! He gave me Super Mario Dance Dance Revolution (which is waaaay too much fun!!). He got me some distress inks, some prima flowers in cute little bottles, a stamp, and a great K & Company scrapbook. Bevan also got me "The Wizard of Oz" collectors edition, and the Adventures in Babysitting DVD. There was more too, but way too much to list. All in all, it was a good Christmas. Frankie had a great first Christmas and really enjoyed opening her Christmas presents, which she managed to sniff out quite well.
Bevan and I headed back to PEI on Friday (the 30th). The weather was warm, so we knew we wouldn't hit any snow and decided it would be the best day to head back. We've been here for 3 days now and our house is very slowly getting put in order. We had to buy a new shelf to house our DVD collection. For New Years we had a wonderful, relaxing, quiet evening.
Today my goal was to start simplifying. I have sooooo much crap that has to be weeded through. We already have a half of a garbage bag of papers to be recycled. I have about half of the laundry done. I've yet to get to the scrapbooking room, and that is quite a job in itself. I would love to get it all done before tomorrow so I can enjoy my last day of my month long vacation, but that's probably wishful thinking. I'm trying to stay optimistic though!! Anyways, I'm not really getting anything done while I sit here typing, so I'm going to get off my butt and get back to work. Pictures to follow soon!!

Short Update

Not much new over the last couple of days. Mel got here on Sunday with Frankie. She's been quite the little rascal (Frankie, not Mel). She goes through spells where she's all calm and cuddley, and then 2 seconds later she's running around and around and squeezing herself under the couch. Pretty much all Mel and I have been doing is scrapbooking. We moving the kitchen table into the living room. Here are the products of my hard work!!

Bevan's new job seems to be going well. He found out the other day that he doesn't have to work between Christmas and New Years, so we plan to stay at home in NS for the whole time. We'll see how things go I guess. Anyways, I'm off for now.

I know, it's been forever!!

Well, I'm back. It's been a really long time since I've blogged. I guess that's what happens when you're on vacation. So, where should I start?? I guess the beginning would be the best place. December 1st was my last day of work for an entire month. It was a pretty great day, the anticipation of a long vacation made me pretty happy. That was a Thursday. I spent the day on Friday at the scrapbook store with Carolyn putting away a great big order of great stuff, mostly Christmas papers, etc... Bevan and I headed home on Saturday. Mom and I went to the mall on Saturday evening to get stuff for the new puppy we were getting for Mel. This is the first time I've mentioned this because it was a surprise!!! She's always wanted a weiner dog, so we decided we'd get her one for when she came home from Australia. Mom and Dad went in November and picked the puppy out. She was born on October 1, 2005. These are some pictures of the puppy they chose on the day they went to pick her out.













So, on Monday the 5th of December we headed out to the airport a couple of hours early. We stopped at the dog breeders house and picked up the puppy. There were soooo many cute puppies there and on the way out the door I told them I'd be back to get a puppy of my very own as soon as I could. We can't have pets at the apartment where we live now, so I guess I'll have to wait a while longer. Here is a picture of Frankie wrapped up in the quilt that Mom made for her(at least that's what we were calling her at this point, Mel didn't even know about her, so we weren't sure what her name would actually be).














Mel and Mitch's plane arrived a few minutes early. We all hugged her. It was great to see her. Then we gave her the basket with the puppy in it and she was sooooo excited.
The next few days were spent catching up, playing with the new puppy, and sipping barrels of coffee through the Tim Tams Mel had bought at the duty free shop in the Australian airport. On Thursday we went to Halifax to do some Christmas shopping. We had a great day. On Friday we had a bit of a snow storm. On Saturday night we had a welcome home party which included lots of great Karaoke. The more drinks we had, the better we thought we were and the more we sang. It was great. When Bevan and I were leaving the party, which was in the garage, and heading up to the house, we were walking through the Christmas Tree Lot in the garage driveway, and the police stopped us. I think they thought we were going to steal a tree. I told the officer "I'm with them" motioning behind me to the garage, not realizing that from the road it looked like I was motioning to no one at all!! On Tuesday, Bevan and I headed back to PEI. Bevan got a job (yay) so we headed back so he could get to work. Since we've been back things have been pretty relaxing and quiet. Wednesday brought another snowstorm. On Friday I worked at the scrapbook store. Then on Friday night we went to Carolyn's house for an evening of Pizza, Mario Dance Dance Revolution and Mad Gab. We had a great time. On Saturday night we went to a Community Christmas Concert at the Jubilee Theatre here in Summerside. It was pretty good. Over the weekend I've also finished a great scrapbook layout from our trip to CKU.
Now, here it is, Sunday morning. I've watched my Coronation Street, had my coffee - minus the Tim Tams :( and now I'm going to go shower so we can pick Mel up at the ferry for a few days of heavy scrapbooking!!

One more week!

Well, one more week of work (4 days to be exact) and then I'm officially on vacation until January 3rd!!! I've only taken a couple of weeks worth of vacation for the rest of the year, and with Mel coming home on the 5th I figured it would be great to have the whole month of December off to catch up with her, catch up on my sleep, catch up with my scrapbooking!! I'm pretty excited. I feel like I'm following in my father's footsteps!! For quite a few years now he's been taking the entire month of December off. I always wondered what the appeal was. For me it's never really Christmas until I'm done of work or school though. So for the past few years it hasn't seemed like Christmas until December 23rd. This year I get to be excited for a whole month!!!
It's been a fun and interesting weekend. I worked at the scrapbook store on Friday. Then on Friday night Bevan and I went to get some groceries and then stopped at Pizza Delight for yummy desert! I had the brownie skillet (a brownie warmed on a skillet in the oven, topped with french vanilla ice cream and whipped cream, YUM!!) and Bevan had the apple skillet (the same as above with apple crisp instead of a brownie.)
On Saturday, Carolyn had a Christmas open house at the scrapbook store. It was loads of fun, lots of people stopped by to make cards and tags and take advantage of a great sale!! We had apple cider and coffee and cookies. Then I went to Pizza Delight with Carolyn and Michelle for lunch. I should own shares in that place!! On Saturday afternoon, Bevan and I went to Charlottetown. I got some ideas for Christmas gifts and I bought a sweet Napolean Dynamite talking keychain. I had every intention to give it to someone as a gift, but then decided no one else could possibly enjoy it as much as I do!!
At 5 this morning Bevan and I were both wide awake for some strange reason. We got up, got a drink, went back to bed and put the Elf DVD in. I totally forgot how much I loved that movie. It's definetly a holiday favorite. Today (Sunday) I got up and watched my 2 1/2 hours of Coronation Street. Then we put together the new shelf I bought for my scrapbooking room. And this afternoon we went to the grocery store!! Today is the first of 4 Sundays before Christmas when we have Sunday shopping here on PEI. It's great, I wish we had it year round. After that we came home and super cleaned out the fridge and then made homemade pizza. Then we found Babes in Toyland on TV!!! It was one of Mel and my favorite movies when we were young. In case you've never seen it, it has Keanu Reeves, Drew Barrymore and a couple of other relatively unknown actors. It's such a great movie. During the movie we put up some Christmas decorations and made apple cider.
I guess all in all it's been a really good weekend. We were pretty busy and I still have TONS to do before I'm ready to go home. Guess I better go and actually get some stuff done!!

My Card is on the Basic Grey Website!!!

I'm pretty excited. I made a Christmas card over the weekend with the new Basic Grey line of paper - Blitzen. I posted it on 2 Peas in a Bucket and someone suggested that I submit it to the gallery on the Basic Grey website. So I did, and I got an e-mail today saying that my card was selected and it is now on the website. If you click on gallery and then click on the "designers" pull-down menu, my name is there!! You can check it out here

The Fun is Over

Well, let's update you all on my great 24 hours (although I'm not quite sure it's been a full 24 hours yet). Here goes:

Supper - great - casserole with macaroni, spaghetti sauce, sausage, cheese, mushrooms. It was super yummy.
The Sopranos - the end of season 5 was awesome. Who'd have guessed that Adrianna gets whacked?? Well, I guess I kind of figured she did, since she's now on Joey!!
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - WOW. I'm always amazed at how much I can enjoy a movie meant for children, although frankly, I'm not sure this one was very children oriented, I was pretty freaked out at some parts.
Coronation Street and Coffee - Great as usual. I do, however, miss the summer Sundays when Coronation Street was on for like 5 full hours. We're back to 2 1/2 now.
Waffles for breakfast - didn't have them!! We had cheese scones, chicken bacon, and hashbrowns instead. Still great though!!
I did make some more Christmas cards as well, and I'm still working on more - so far so good.

I just checked out Bevan's blog, too. He made me laugh so hard I almost cried. I'd like to thank the desperate house husband for the entertainment. I promise I'll check in more often.

Quick Note.....

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was sooooooooooooo good. I was kind of iffy about going to see it on only the 2nd night it was there, but we went to the 9:45 show so there weren't toooo many people there. It was soo worth it. Now I have to wait ages though until the next book or movie!!!!

My next 24 hours

I'm sitting here drinking my french vanilla cappuccino (I've decided I love hot drinks: tea, coffee, hot chocolate, hot apple cider, cappuccino, you name it, I'll probably drink it!!) I've had a pretty productive day so far. I've made a couple more Christmas cards and posted them on Two Peas in a Bucket . I've replenished my stock of envelopes so that I can actually send out my Christmas cards when they're all finished. We've been to the grocery store. I'm actually quite looking forward to the next 24 + hours as well. First of all, I have the rest of the afternoon to make cards and watch the last few episodes of Season 5 of The Sopranos. We are making a yummy casserole for supper. We've pre-purchased our tickets for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire at 9:45, and of course I pre-purchased my popcorn too!!! And tomorrow morning is Coronation Street for 2 1/2 hours, with lots of coffee to go with it!! The fact that tomorrow is Sunday is exciting for me too, because I have absolutly nothing I have to do. Yay!!

Holy Freakin' Snow!!!

Well, I suppose it had to happen sometime, but I wouldn't have minded if it didn't!! It's snowing!!! There have been flurries a couple of mornings already, but never enough to stay on the ground. Well, now it's sticking around. YUCK!!! I don't love the snow.
I've been busy the last week or so. I made some cards to sell at the Three Oaks Craft Fair. I've been trying to get my scrapbooking room clean and organized (yes, again!!). And I've been trying to complete some of my CKU projects. Things are slowly getting done. All I can say is thank goodness for Bevan being the bestest boyfriend ever and doing soooo much housework!!! He cooks, he cleans, he does laundry - you've gotta love him!!
I only have 10 days of work left before I go on vacation for an entire month. I'm very excited about it. Mostly because Mel's coming home from Australia, where she's been for the last 9 months. Also because, for me, it's never really Christmas until I'm done of work or school. So this year Christmas gets to last a whole month!!!! Yay.
Anyways, it's late, I'm gonna go to bed now.

Missing in Action

I've spent the last half hour or so destroying my newly organized scrapbook room looking for my leftover pictures from my album track at CKU. I took 'A Week in the Life', Ali Edwards track. It was an amazing experience, although I have yet to finish my album. As of right now I'm considering the extra pictures M.I.A. Guess I should be thankful that I already put in the main ones. After freaking out about the missing pictures, I realized they were digitals and the files are on my hard drive, ready to be printed again!! Anyways, it also made me re-think how I want to finish this album. I was pretty much going to just throw together a bunch of the leftover pictures to create a final page, but now I think it will be best to do more journalling and add in things that weren't mentioned in the album but are a part of a typical week in my life. So far I've thought of:

• what TV shows I like to watch
• what pets I have right now
• my favorite restaurant
• my current address
• the name and address of my workplace

Basically, I just think it's important to add in things that right now seem like not such a big deal, but in 20 years I probably won't remember!! I guess that's the whole concept of the album, isn't it!!

Second thing I need to mention is that I really need to work on this organization thing. I've been losing things left and right lately. I always put things in places where they are "safe" and then, of course, forget where that safe spot is!! Anyways, now that things are slowing down a little bit I promise to be more organized!! So that's what I'm going to do right now, re-organize my trashed scrapbooking room!!

Back to Normal (whatever that is!!)

Well, I've been back for 3 days now and things are pretty much back to normal. It kind of feels like I was never gone away at all. Going away makes you realize all the things your thankful for at home, like Bevan, and my coffee maker so I can have coffee whenever I want!!, and my car so I don't have to depend on NY taxis to get around.

I'm slowly getting my scrapbooking room put back together, but I'm soooo out of room in there it's not even funny. It was pretty much filled to capacity before I went away and I came back with a huge suitcase filled with new scrapbooking stuff, so you can only imagine!! I'm not putting my projects away until I have them finished. I worked on a couple of pages for my favorite things album last night. I got to play with the acrylic paint I got from my secret sister, Lori Sudberry. I've started reorganizing my ribbon collection (which has grown by about 75 yards in the last week!!!) I've had some of my sister's scrapbooking stuff since she's been in Australia and I'll be sending that home with my parents next weekend so that will give me a tiny bit more room. She's coming home a month from tomorrow. I can't wait to see her, she's been gone for 9 months now.

Back from CKU and NYC

Well, I've really slacked off on this blog thing for the last couple of months. I guess I'll blame it on being busy with Close to my Heart gatherings and getting ready for CKU. But now I'm back and I just want to share!! First of all, I can't tell you what a GREAT trip I had. My first time flying went well. Flying into NYC was awesome. We flew right over Manhattan - wow!!! Got to the Westin in Stamford, CT. CKU was a whirlwind of activity. I've never done soooo much scrapbooking in such a short period of time. I've come home with soooo many incomplete projects, guess I have lots to work on in the coming months!! We went to NYC on Sunday morning. Our hotel was RIGHT in the middle of Times Square (we stayed at the Double Tree). And we lucked out because most of 7th Avenue was blocked off for a street market. All of the vendors were there selling scarves, purses, souveniers. It was perfect. Then we went to lunch at Planet Hollywood. We walked around and saw Radio City Music Hall, Rockafeller Center, Trump Tower, and Tiffany's (yes, we actually went inside!!). Then we took a cab to Ground Zero. We had a great cab driver who was a great tour guide. Next we went back to the hotel and then out to supper at Tavern on the Green. Then it was off to Stomp. What a great show. We were in the second row, and was it ever dusty there!! Then back to Times Square to take in the night sights!! I guess I'll post more over the next couple of days, off to work now!!

A Productive Day!!

Well, it's 3 PM and I've had quite a productive day so far. I've gotten 6 different cards made (see the above pictures). Mind you, no housework has gotten done, and the one load of laundry that I put into the washer has yet to make it to the dryer!! I guess I'm not a great multi-tasker. I think that's another skill I've lost since I finished school. I used to be able to study and watch TV and talk all at the same time!!, now I can't even listen to Bevan if I'm watching TV!! The bad thing is that TV usually wins, and Bevan is the one who usually gets ignored. I'm such a bad girlfriend!! I always eventually ask him what it was he said, after all, he can repeat himself, and if I miss something on TV I might never get to hear it again!! (just kidding)

Speaking of Bevan, today is his last day of work. He's at Rainbow Valley for the summer again, as he was last summer. The very sad thing is that this is the last day that Rainbow Valley will ever be open!! It's closing forever. It's a pretty big deal here on PEI.

Changes

What a great day. I get to experience the relaxation of Sunday without the crankiness because I have to go back to work tomorrow. You've gotta love long weekends. It's really cool (temperature I mean) this morning. You can tell that fall is just around the corner. This time of year always reminds me of going back to school. Just this morning I got this little feeling of dread as I thought of busy classes, tests, etc... and then I realized that I don't have to worry about that. I don't have to worry about coming home in the evenings and reading textbooks and doing homework. I really don't miss that part of school. I do feel that my brain is starting to shrivel (is that how you spell that??) up though. I guess I just proved my point, I don't even know how to spell anymore. It's nice to be able to sit on the couch and watch TV or scrapbook and make cards and not feel guilty because I should be doing something school related.

Yeah, I Scrapbooked!!

I actually got some scrapbooking done today. I've been in a rut lately, felt like I didn't have any pictures, but I've realized I have to get out of scrapbooking events only. This page is an example of my new scrapbooking. I love the journalling and I'm very happy with how it turned out.

Dancing Queen

Well, it's Saturday of the long weekend already. It's too bad that weekdays just drag on and the weekend days fly by. Oh well. We've had a good weekend so far. Bevan was home by 6:30 last night, then we went to Pizza Delight, the most garlicy (is that a word??) place on earth, for supper. Then we came home and played Scrabble (I kicked his ass by the way. How could I not win with a word like kingdom??) while watching one of my favorite movies - 13 Going On 30. While watching the scene when everyone at the party started dancing to "Thriller" I realized that most of my favorite movies involve dancing in some way. There are the ones with obvious dancing: Dirty Dancing, Flashdance, Footloose. Then there is Grease, which of course has singing which always goes along with dancing!! And now I'm just remembering that great dance scene in Napolean Dynamite. Wow. Maybe if Bevan lied to me and told me there was dancing in Lord of the Rings I would watch that with him!! (Although that would be a very mean trick!!) Anyways, I'm off to enjoy my Saturday.

Too Much

The beginning of my long weekend has become depressing. My addiction to the news is what is causing all this I think. You see all these horrible stories and pictures of everything going on in Louisiana and Mississippi, etc... and it is just plain depressing. And on top of that and closer to home gas prices here on the island started out the day at $1.10 per liter and have now jumped to $1.30 per liter. I know it is petty compared to what the people of New Orleans and other areas are going through but still depressing. Having to pay $50.00 on top of this just to leave PEI makes it tempting to sit at home and never go anywhere. Kind of makes me want to move closer to home too. Who knows, aaaaaahhhhh. I don't really like stress anymore. I'm going to do something mindless. Nintendo Gamecube (Super Mario Sunshine) and a big cup of hot coffee, here I come.

September 1st???

September 1st already?? What happened to August, or to June and July for that matter?? Oh well, back to routine I guess. Nothing in my life is really any different between August and September, yet September seems to bring things back to normal and away from the craziness of summer. I'm really looking forward to the long weekend this weekend. I actually didn't even realize that I didn't have to work on Monday until about 2 days ago, so I guess that makes it even more exciting. I'm really looking forward to making cards and maybe even doing some scrapbooking over the weekend. Bevan will be at work a lot, since it is the very last weekend that Rainbow Valley will be open. That's pretty sad.