i will leave you with some random j-bits.
i'm always smiling when i read missy's blog with con-speak...
i will try to re-create the mood and kid-speak voice like she does so well:

if you don't brush your teef you get sugar-bugs.
yes.
do sugar bugs have big moufs? or teeny moufs?
teeny ones. they're just little tiny bugs.
do sugar bugs eat your teefs?

den one foggy christmas eve,
santa came to say (in his underwear!!!)
hey! look at my eyebrows when i say in his underwear!
dey wiggle up and down!

i know you like movies wif stories instead of fightings.
so i picked dis one. i hope you like it.

can you turn dis song up? dis is my song.
oh, and dis one is my song too.
please turn it up some more mama.

(to auntie-aley who has left for china):
hey! i fought you were leaving already!
not quite yet...do you want me to leave?
uhhhhmmmm....
(hey! little monkey....!)

no mama. i don't want any books for chris-miss.
i promise i don't.
(too bad...sucka!)


and with that, i close. i must get some food into my gut pronto.
just under 1/2 a day left and another 1/2 day tomorrow...
then ALL of next week off. YES!!!!
love holidays.

hmmmm

i found this today while looking through folders upon folders of photos from the last year or so. got me thinking again, relative to my last post.

it was part of dare 25...way back in april, if you can believe it. near the beginning of my "effer"/dare career. near the beginning of the HAMBLY explosion. neat. good quote too.

uppity-date

so i only post once a week for how long...now twice in one day? shock of all shocks.

power is back. thank god.
there will be no scrapbooking by candlelight for me tonight.

Do you ever have those moments when you think to yourself. "Hmm...I really don't like most of the stuff I've been making lately." I'm going through that I think. Not enough time to enjoy the process...play, etc. Or, and this just came to me...maybe I've been experimenting and pushing the envelope. Trying new things. Hmm. You know that might just be it. And just not being entirely happy with everything. I guess that's part of being an artist and the whole growth process. You need to go out of your comfort zone from time to time, whether it's to realize you like what you were doing before, or to find new techniques that you want to repeat. Yeah. OK so I actually managed to cruise the gallery at 2peas for a few minutes today. It was really inspiring. I also think that recognizing what you like in others' works can remind you of your own personal style (aka comfort zone). Anyway, it made me realize I have not had time to play lately and make some fun stuff. I think the lack of that in an artist's life can lead to feeling...dull...maybe bored.

Just some food for thought.

Oh and a bit more to share for right now. I think this is my first time EVER in a monthly magazine. VERY exciting for me...I had to pick up a copy when I saw it in the store today :) BHG january issue, in the Made It Yours column. Thanks Candi! It was a fun page to do because I pulled out some old "winter" photos and Jaxon happens to be just a wee little thing...mere months old in these photos. He's so cute!!!!!!!!! (and I was so skinny, but let's not talk about that).

I can't wait to get home and PLAY tonight!!!

ohmygoodness

What a wacky morning! The power went out, sometime between 3 and 4:30am. I had a ROUGH night's sleep. Major windstorm, and I'm getting a cold I think. So Jaxon and I went about getting sort of ready in the candle and flash lit place (he had daddy's cool high-tech flashlight, so he was happy). We arrived at the daycare to find it in pitch-blackness and to the news that the school was also closed. Hmmm. I was 45 minutes late for work, and my sister now has Jax for the day. They will have fun...everyone is happy. Then we had hail, sleet, rain, wind, and now, brilliant sunshine. Vancouver and its multiple-personality-disorder weather.

J-speak throughout the night/morning (he crawled into bed with us at some point during the night):

(slaps d 4 times on his bald head-top)
d: hey! jaxon...stop hitting me!
j: (almost crying) weeeellll...you did it to meee!
(i assure you, dren did not smack the child in his sleep)

san...red....sh...
me: what?
j: santa wears red shoes!
me: are you sure? i thought his shoes were black and his suit was red.
no response.
alright. back to sleep.

we should get daddy to come home and fix it. because he's really good at fixing stuff.
(re: the power being out)

what!?? i can't watch my shows?
well, at least i have my toys.

can we call the fire department to come and fix the TV?
(re: the fire panel located on the wall just outside our apartment, beeping incessantly due to said power outage, related in j's mind to the issue of not being able to watch morning cartoons)

yipeee!
(upon learning that daycare and school were not options today)
me: huh? you WANT to come to work with me? why? you were so bored last time.
j: because i love you so much.

And just to celebrate the J a little more, I have his first-ever hand-written Christmas list. Love it. This week's dare is brought to you by RedDiva kits...gorgeous stuff in there...can't wait to play some more. Specially with the coolcoolcool 7G album.

hello friday.

and thank god.
i am in need of a break BIG time.

today's dare was brought to us all by the one and only lovely jamaica.
hello, my name is:

all about names. fun stuff!
although i finished this last week, i realized earlier this week that i really want to do a page honouring the name some might know me by in the scrapping world...
PAPERJAX!
i love that name. a page must be made.

ok. feeling the need to get messy.
xoxog

uhm yes.

hello. me here. i do exist...i am alive.
just
really
really
really
really
busy.
some fun stuff, some not-so-fun.
work is IIIIINSANE right now.
it's "rush" season.
kind of amazing that there is a season for ordering cds and dvds, but whatev.
we got our tree decorated yesterday. yay!
there is a jaxon-height horizontal line of ornaments, many the same, but i'm leaving it just as is.
ok what else?
nothing. i'm too busy to be doing this.
alright bye then.
with a little peek at something fun...

one week later

Time is flying by me at light-speed these days!
Lots going on, lots of email and "computer stuff" to get caught up on...I just haven't been spending much time at the machine apart from during work. It feels good because I've been getting lots done and spending lots of time with the boys, but I want to make a better effort to stay in touch because a) I miss it and b) If I don't return some email people will either think I've been arrested and thrown in jail (or something) or that I don't love them and then I'll be left with no friends. Hmmm...not good. So email is definitely on the to-do list!

Dare #50...quite possibly the worst photo of a layout ever...but whatever. I didn't want to scan it cuz of the lumpy flower rhinestone thing. I LOVE this photo of me mama...she looks so gorgeous. Love her.

50{ish}:
























And BY THE WAY! We had snow almost all week and it was SO exciting so early in the year! Of course, now it's all melting into grey mush in typical Vancouver fashion but it was fun while it lasted.

Off to a Christmas party tonight, and then a hopefully relaxing weekend ahead.