a cleaning whirling dervish

I haven't had much time to devote to the blog lately. Now that the weather is nice, we're busy doing outdoor stuff and spending our weekends cleaning and purging 12 years of accumulated crap. My dh is a notorious packrat, and yes, I also have my fair share of junk that I can't bear to part with, but I'm getting better at being ruthless and throwing it out. Case in point.. last weekend, we had a yard sale, and managed to make enough cash to pay our membership at the local outdoor pool, so I was pretty ecstatic about that. We cleaned out a major part of our basement a few weekends ago, and it was pretty amazing to see how many boxes of useless stuff we actually had. It was a bit of a pain in the butt getting it organized and ready, but the outcome was very rewarding. Alas, no pictures were taken that day as I was too busy trying to argue with cheapo hagglers and tend to my 2 kids and 2 of their friends who just happened to show up for the afternoon. But we had fun, saw a bunch of neighbours we hadn't seen all winter, ( as we Canucks tend to hibernate) and it was that good kind of tired at the end of the day. A job well done. :)

Scrapwise.. not much time for it lately, ( and I would dearly love a chance to sit down in an ORGANIZED space, b/c mine SO isn't.. and sit and do just that- anyone wanna come over and be my personal organizer?! I'm so bad at it.) but I did do this layout for the AC blog last week. So, being pleased with it, I sent it in, and then came across a page on 2Peas a few nights later that had the exact title, and pretty much the same product line on it. Yeah. I was horrified, although I'd never seen the page up until that moment, I knew there was no way I could let them use it on the site. So I made a quickie card, and sent that in place of this. This same thing has happened to me once before, although that time, it was one of those very subconcious things where you see a layout you adore, and file it away in that 'things I love' part of your brain. Fast forward to 2 years later, and I made a very similar page, only realizing it after the fact. Kind of embarrassing, but an honest mistake, really. I sometimes wonder how much of what we make is 100% our own creation? I think we're all so influenced and inspired by so much out there that it's really hard to come up with something that's 100% your own design and idea. I would love to experiment for 6 months by not buying a scrap mag or surfing scrap sites.I wonder if I'd scrap the same? Probably. But I'm way too weak for that kind of torture, lol!





















Time for lunch making duty. And that chore is getting very tired too- only a month to go, and I'll be lunch free, woohoo! PLEASE send me some lunch sugestions if you have any, I ( and my poor children) would be very grateful!

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I must live under a rock..

because I didn't know anything about this movie until last night while watching the Idol finale.

I don't get out much, and lord knows when the last time was that I went and saw a movie in a theatre. But I WILL be going to see this! Mike Myers is a funny, funny guy, ( Canadian too) and I'm a huge fan of all his Austin Powers movies. This flick looks particularly cheesy and over the top, and I'm looking forward to 2 hours of mindless humour.

Speaking of the Idol finale, I gotta say I was a bit shocked at the outcome. I have a soft spot for David A, and really thought the kid was gonna win it. But David C was just as deserving, if maybe not more, so it's all good. It's the first Idol I've watched where I really didn't have a favourite in the top 2.

Since I haven't been scrapping much, and what I have been doing I can't show here yet, I'll leave you with a layout I did for a scraplift challenge we have on my lss website. Danielle is a friend of mine, and an amazing scrapper too. I've loved her pages for years, so this was a great opportunity to lift her, guilt free. ;) Check out her gallery, she's supremely talented!



Looking forward to the Grey's finale tonight, and then tomorrow, we're getting ready for a huge yard sale on Saturday to try and unload some of the junk we've accumulated in the past 10 years here. I'd love to think we'll make enough $$ to pay the cottage, but that's a lot of junk. ;p



Happy Thursday!

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Thursdays ROCK.

I usually work Thursdays, but because I'm replacing my boss on Saturday, she offered to switch with me today, and so I snapped up her offer. Thursday is, for some strange reason, my favourite day of the week. I have no idea why, but it may be a combo of good tv, almost end of the week and ( used to be) pay day that makes it a happy day for me. And having the house to myself for a full 8 hours is heavenly. So far today I've accomplished the daunting task of going through my kids drawers and weeding out the too small/winter stuff, and putting in their summer clothes. It's a job I hate to do, but it always feels so good once it's neat and orderly again. Now I have to try and do the same thing with my scrap stuff, but for some reason it's harder for me to be as ruthless about throwing out stuff. ;p

I wanted to share this little find with you guys. It came in the mail the other day, and I love it. :)

I found the link to IBelieve's Etsy shop through Rita's blog, and I promptly bought this little beauty of a camera strap. Isn't it purty? Go check out her stuff if you're looking for a cute strap to funk up your camera a bit- it's very well made and she's totally professional and prompt. :)

And this makes my day even better:

We're renting this cute little house in July, and very best part is that it's less than a 2 minute walk to the most beautiful beach in Maine. I am TOTALLY psyched and excited to have found this, as there is absolutely nothing available, ( read: affordable) left in the area for the time we're going, so I really lucked out! I can't wait to wake up in the mornings and take a stroll on the beach. It's going to be pure bliss. :)

Happy Thursday!

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The mother of all Mother's days.

Happy belated Mother's Day to everyone! Hope yours was amazing and you all got to kick back and relax like I did yesterday.
I had a pretty cool day. Slept in until 9am, and went down to a great breakfast of homemade egg McMuffins and coffee, lovingly prepared by Bob and the kids. I think I foiled their plans of bringing me breakfast in bed, but honestly, I'm not a huge fan of eating in bed the minute I open my eyes. Call me weird, but I like sitting at a table when I eat.

I did some shopping later that morning with a friend, and came home to an empty house, ( kids and Bob were doing errands) so I sat outside reading 'The Digital Photography Book' while enjoying a coffee from Tim's. The sun was warm, and it felt good to sit and chill, since the day before, we spent 8 hours cleaning our basement and doing yard work, all the while watching our 2 kids and 4 of their friends who sort of all showed up at the same time. We had an impromptu picnic/party in the backyard at lunchtime for them, with hotdogs, pizza, gatorade, and popsicles, and they played outside for a full 8 hours. Let me tell ya, they slept like babies that night. ;p Nothing like some good old fashioned fresh air, it's magic stuff.

Anyways, back to my day... I scrapped a bit finally yesterday, because I was dying to try out my new Cutterpede Trimmer, and I ended up hacking up my layout when I was almost finished it, b/c I decided I wanted to back it on black cardstock. Mistake! Now, is there anything more frustrating than cutting crooked on a finished layout? Argh. I was all gung-ho about this trimmer b/c I thought I'd finally seen the end of crooked cuts, but I'm starting to think I have no idea how to really use a paper trimmer. IThe Cutterpede has a different cut line from my old Fiskars, and I'm thinking I should have practiced on some scrap paper before I attempted a cutting for the 1st time on a layout. Anyhow, I managed to salvage the page somewhat. but it's it's kind of a weird 11x 11.5 page. Needless to say, I will NOT be submitting this one anywhere.

As a lovely finish to a lovely day, Chef Bob cooked up some mean crab cakes accompanied by a green salad and a few glasses of Chardonnay. Yep folks, it's rough having a chef for a husband, what can I tell ya. After supper,we watched the hockey game, but my heart isn't in it the same since my Habs were eliminated a few weeks ago. Honestly, the whole city was depressed for days. I'm now rooting for Pittsburgh to win it, but it's kind of half-assed really. It's just not the same thrill when your team gets the boot.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I got some adorable homemade gifties from my boys- a beaded bracelet from Bobby ( handmade by him), a felt wallhanging /thermometer from Noah ( lol!) and a beautiful hibiscus tree from dh. And lots of adoration from my 3 boys, who really do love their Mom/wife. Here's the proof....

The photo is grainy because it was taken just before sunset, so the ISO was jacked up, but I love it, because I rarely get a good pic with the both of them. And you gotta love Noah's bowtie. He wore it the entire afternoon, in honour of Mother's Day. How cute is that?! The kid LOVES dress-up, it's hilarious. My Dad says he's going to be an actor, b/c he loves costumes so much.

I'll leave you with hacked up layout. It actually started out quite spacious, but I just kept cutting and cutting, and it got smaller and smaller.. Someone PLEASE send me tips on how to use a Cutterpede. I'd be very grateful. :)

Happy Monday!

eta: I have NO idea why my date at the top is wrong. Well, I do have an idea- I think it's because I deleted a post I had started on that day, and started this one in it's place, but now I can't change it? And if anyone can tell me why my pics aren't 'clickable' in this post, I'd love to know that too. ;p

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