So instead of stamping...

...I've been cleaning. I went through all the boys toys and am giving them to the daycare services here in town. I went through all my old swaps and 3d stuff, organized my scraps, changed some stuff around and now feel like I can breathe in my stamp space. Love it. Now, to get back to stamping!! Ske-doosh.

I'm around...

...but not stamping much. I'll be back this week with some new stuff. Ske-doosh.

Sweet Dragon Bookmark...

I have to admit that punch art has never really been my style. But the things that people are coming up with now...it's pretty durn cool, homeslice. So I was looking around the net to find some punch art to show my clubs and someone suggested I go have a look at Kim Score's Paper Punch Addiction (Thanks T!). It didn't take me long to buy 3 of her awesome tutorials. My clubs loved the little dragon so much that I decided to use him again for a school activity. I was kinda worried that 14 teenagers would scoff at the idea of making a bookmark with a sweet faced dragon on it...nope! They loved it! I even had a guy sign up! LOL! So what if he signed up only because his cute girlfriend made him? It still counts! Ske-doosh.

Projet 104: #9...loneliness

9. loneliness

I'm kinda cheating this week because this was a photo that I took over the summer...you guys still love me, right? I have yet to scrap this photo but it is definitely on my to-do list.I don't know if it really embodies "loneliness" but I love it. Ske-doosh.

Projet 104: #4 through #8

SLACKER!!! You can call me "Slacker". For the past 2 weeks Kimmie has been posting the words for Projet 104 and, for 2 weeks, I have been meaning to take some photos. Well, TODAY IS THE DAY! LOL! My husband was looking at me like I was crazy this lunch hour because I kept asking him, "What kind of picture would you take for the word...(insert word here)." So, here's #'s 4 through 8:

I'm going to try to keep up from now on...for the sanity of my husband. Ske-doosh.

Yet another page...

This is a photo of me when I was 18 or 19 years old after a night of debauchery. I woke up that morning and I was literally sleeping *on* my face. Like, face in pillow. I remember waking up and wondering how I was able to breathe. I had these weird bracket lines around my nose. I was...less than hot. My roomate, Sheena, better known as Weenah, couldn't stop laughing at the look on my face. You can see the photo I took of her on the same morning here. Man, am I ever glad I don't drink like that anymore. Ah, youth.

This page was is really not a fave but the story behind it is. I was scrapbooking with some of my dear friends and it was really late. I had originally planned something different for the layout. It didn't work. I wanted to do some hand lettering but made a major spelling mistake. Had to fix it. Then I got the bright idea to bring out the acrylic paints...at 2 a.m. Not good. Long story short...chop chop, cut cut, paste paste and VOILA! A hot mess of a page. LOL! I do, however, like the skull. Ske-doosh.

January Tour de Freaks!!!

Welcome to the January edition of the Control Freaks Tour de Freaks Blog Tour! This month, we're featuring all things Valenetine's/ Love. Ah, l'amour...lol. You've probably just arrived from the totally awesome Julie Buhler's blog, Paper Pleasing Ideas. She rocks, right? I'm sure you enjoyed all of her projects. I know I did!

Let's keep the party rolling, shall we?

I don't know what's going on with me lately but cardmaking has been really hard for me! I have an idea in my head and it seems wicked awesome. Putting it on paper? Not so much. I *like* this card, I just don't *love* it. The Small Heart punch with the new I [heart] Hearts stamp set, however, I lurve. I was lucky enough to receive the stamps at the Québec City regionals.

Next, I made this love note matchbook album for my super hot husband for Valentine's day. I used the luscious Sending Love Specialty Designer Series Paper, the Rectangle Glassine Envelopes and the Hugs Sending Love Notes from the new mini catalogue to make a a cute way to tell my hubs how much he means to me. I only wrote the top 5 things but there's a million reasons why I love him. Ok, everyone stop gagging...moving on....

This is a layout that I frequently go back to as it really showcases the photo. And this photo, in particular, makes me laugh. I can't tell you how many shots I have of this guy making this face. He sometimes even adds, in a thick French accent, "Can you smell what the Phil is COOKIN'?" How could I *not* love this man? LOL!

That's it for me, folks! From here you'll head on over to the talented Dawn Olchefske's blog, DOstamping with Dawn. Her projects are great so, GO! Go enjoy!! Ske-doosh.

Oli and Sky...

I don't use my MDS near as much as I should. It's so easy to crank out a cute layout! So this is just a quick post to remind my readers to stop by tomorrow for the Control Freaks blog tour! There's fantastic talent in this group, I tells ya. Come check us out tomorrow! Ske-doosh.

Grandp'pa Maurice...

This one of my all-time favourite photos. Um...I'm so tired right now that I can't think of anything clever to say. ;) Ske-doosh.

This page is kind of an self-scraplift from this page I did of Logan a couple of years ago. I'm in love with this photo of Sky (even though it's blurry). He was looking at the dog across the street when I took the shot. I've really fallen in love with scrapbooking again so don't be surprised if you see a few layouts pop up from now on. I'm feeling creative again for the first time in a long time. You know, not just going through the motions. I'm actually daydreaming about it again. Makes me a happy scrapper. :)

I should be posting a page of the eldest Côté child today as it's his 5th birthday but I don't have one on hand. I cannot *believe* that I have a 5 year old child. There was a really funny picture posted of him at the daycare last week. It was taken at Christmas right before the break. All 70 kids from the daycare are crowded into the long hallway and whose head is poked out a good half foot taller than *all* the kids? Yup, Logan the Magnificent. LOL! He is SO tall! Well, I'm tall, Phil is tall and cats don't make dogs. ;)

Happy Birthday, sweet Logan!!!!!!!

ske-doosh.

Another page and close to 100000 hits!

Yes, my husband is a hairy, hairy man. This shot was taken the day that Skyler was born and we were encouraged to have Phil hold Skyler "skin to skin" to help with the breastfeeding experience. I had a planned c-section so I was too drugged up and dopey to snuggle the little hairless wonder safely so "The Hairy One" stepped in. Click on the photo to see the journalling close up if you'd like.

So, 100000 hits!! I can't believe it. I really can't. Thank you all so much for stopping by and following my blog even though I often disappear for days and days at a time. I appreciate your readership and really get a kick out of your comments. You guys are a really rewarding part of my life and I thank you all. Ske-doosh.

ETA: Uhhh...yeah...I'm a meathead. I just realized that I'm still 9k away from 100k hits, so...ummm...yeah. Just pretend like I didn't say anything, k? Or, just visit 300 times a day so I don't look like such a dweeb...LOL!

Wonderful butterflies...

I had some friends come over during the holiday break and we had one scrappy good time. We starting at 2 p.m. and didn't wrap up until 3 a.m. We laughed and scrapped until our eyes couldn't stay open anymore. It was a truly awesome day. I even got 5 layouts done! I've decided to try my hand at 8 1/2 x 11. I really like the size. I've got 4 more pages to show you in the next few days.

Make sure you come back to check out the Freaks Tour coming up on the 20th! Our theme this month is Valentines/ Love. Ske-doosh.

Projet 104 and a card...

This card is the last of my Christmas card stash from this year. I'm usually pretty happy to see the tail of the Christmas card making season and this year was no exception. ;)

Here's another Projet 101 shot:

I saw the inspiration word and had a cool idea for doing a little sumthin' sumthin' with Legos but then I pulled *this* out of the tub. Skyler is *way* cuter than Legos so I'm sure you'll concur with my choice. Ske-doosh.

A new project brought to you by Kimmieprout...

If you guys haven't checked out Kimmieprout's blog yet, then here's your chance! She's an amazingly talented Québecoise artist and she's started a photo project on her blog. I'll tell you a bit about it as the explaination on her blog is in French. Basically, she'll choose a word and we're to take a photo with the word in mind. She'll post 2 words a week, hence the 104 photos. You can link back to her when you've posted your photo. I know that, for me, it'll be a great project to try as it'll push me to take more photos. Especially photos with a goal to eventually scrap them.

I can't gaurantee that I'll get it done twice a week, every week but I'm sure going to try! So, here's my first two:

Failure because my pastry will never be as light and flaky as my Grama's was.

It has become a tradition that every Christmas break, we head to the Terrace Dufferin to go sliding at this wonderful old timey ice slide. Screams can be heard for miles...

Come join us on this photographic adventure! Ske-doosh.

A few elfie gifts I sent...

As promised, here's some of the 12 gifts that I sent to my friend Sara for our secret elf swap. It was a lot of fun to do the swap with the ladies. Nothing like having a bunch of little gifts to open up before Christmas!

These are a set of luggage tags made with the much missed East Coast Prep DSP.

This is a little purse that I made to hold 3 re-inkers. I wish I would've measured it while I was making it...LOL!

This sweet little box had a scented candle in it.

This is the same box from this post that I made from an Andrea Walford tute. I filled it with chocolates.

And this was the final day gift. I love these unfinished binders that I found at a "big box" store. It's the same style as this one but with some machine stitching and some of those great stickers from the retired Summer Home SSK.

So, those are a few of the goodies I sent. Hey! There's another Tour de Freaks blog tour coming up. I'll be partaking in the festivities yet again so stop by on the 20th of this month and have a looky-loo!!

Hey, hey, HEY!!!

So, I guess I kinda just disappeared on you guys, eh? I had full intentions of posting over the holidays but then very quickly got into holiday mode and was feeling quite relaxed. I decided to shirk all of my scrapping, stamping, blogging responsibilities for a couple of weeks and, MAN, did it feel GOOD! LOL!

Before I went Christmas MIA, I was telling you guys about a secret swap I did with some of my lovely SA sisters. Well, I'm here to post the rest of the gifts that my super awesome, wicked elf sent me! I honestly can't remember which days were which so I'm just going to post a pack of pics...too bad they're not pickled. Narf.

Not the best photo but look at this awesome CD case that my beautiful friend, Liz made for me.

It's got a tonne of great music on two disc for rockin' and relaxin'. There's a bunch of music I've never heard before on them so I'm super stoked!

Here's an adorable frame that Liz made that is destined for my desk at work. I love her style.

This is a great and thoughtfull gift for me as my purse invariable looks like a bomb went off in it. And you can never have too much candy corn. Ever. I kinda feel bad that she sent me the green convention pen because I pretty sure she did because I was whining one day about one of my students breaking the one I had from convention. Well, now I have two because my friend Kim sent me one, too...I don't deserve this amazing women in my life.

And now, brace yourselves for one of the nicest gifts I have EVER received:

I opened this bad boy and literally got choked up with emotion. It suites me to a "t". It is a gorgeous sketch book with sections for cardsketches, page sketches, 3d project ideas, and color combos. She used my most favourite paper in the catty to make most of my gifts but this one showcases it beautifully.  Look on the inside:

Liz knows me well enough to know that I lose everything so she added a pocket in the book to save me the trouble of stealing pencils from other people.

The work that went into this book absolutely amazes me. I can't thank you enough for such a perfect gift, my friend. I love you.

So, that's it for elf gifts 2009!! There were quite a few other things such as 2 packs of buttons, the polka dot red ribbon that I didn't have, and a mega bar of Hershey's...that I didn't share. Come back over the next few days and I'll be posting the stuff that I made for my friend Sara! Ske-doosh.

Secret Elf Swap

I'm very lucky to have my Stampin' Addicts sisters in my life. This year, we're doing a 12 days of Christmas swap and here's my gifts that I received for the first 3 days. On day one, I received a gorgeous mini-album. Day two (not shown) I received a bunch of Big Shot letters to spell me kids names. And on day three, some socks and slippers to use on my freshly pedicured feet! LOL! I love you, my elf. You are a true friend.

A scalloped square box from AW...

This is a direct case from the talented Andrea Walford. I used different colors, yes, but it is a mega case. The box opens like a drawer and the vanilla CS opens up like a card. Isn't it CUTE?! She has an awesome 12 weeks of Christmas series that she e-mails to subscribers of her newsletter on her blog. The tutorials are only accessible to the subscribers for one week and, unfortunately, this little gem has already passed. BUT! Never fear! She's going to be selling a DVD of all the projects in the 12 weeks of Christmas series. Click on the Demo to Demo icon on the left hand side of my blog to access her site. She's a wealth of ressources, that lady!!! Have a great day, everyone! Ske-doosh.

Glassy Glaze Bella Blooms...

When this stamp came out, I just had to have it. Then i inked it up once and haven't touched it since. I'm trying to come to terms with the fact that I've become a bit of a collector instead of a stamper. I've got close to 200 stamp sets and enough cardstock and DSP to choke a large mammal. So, to remedy this overwhelming guilt of all my uninked and barely-inked rubbah, I'm going to make a serious effort to pull out some of my "gotta haves" and my "ooooh, look at THAT ones". I even dusted off the container of Glassy Glaze that I purchased thinking that I would come up with the quintessential use for it. (never happened) Take a bow, Wiggins. Take...a...bow. ;)

So, who wants to join me in my new adventure? Link back here with any goodies you've made with your oldies! Ske-doosh.

Not like I planned but I still like it...

It's not SUO and the border around was supposed to have been all white but my Signo pen ran out of ink and I'm a meathead that forgot to have a spare on hand but I like it anyway. Run on sentences are my forté.

The Control Freaks monthly blog tour is coming up again and this month I will be participating. It starts on the 20th so don't forget to come backand check it out!!