too much on the "to do" and freestyle fun

• My email is a little bit out of control. Eek. Hopefully today I will get a pile done. Or at least several. If you're waiting, thank you for your patience and I haven't forgotten you :)
  
• Cleaning. Did some yesterday, not all.
• Scrapping. It's really all I want to do lately, but there is some I need to do. That's good right?
• Toy purge. Yes, they are beginning to overtake our world again.
• See the eye doctor.
• Go to the dentist.
• Enjoy at least a tiny bit of fresh air and sunshine today. Yes...it's sunny :)
• Reading. I have about 4 or 5 books calling my name right now. They're eagerly awaiting my next scrapping slump!

As enthralling as my to-do list is I'm sure, I think I'll stop there. And post some layouts that were to be in the second Freestyle book. RIP, Freestyle.


This first one was a challenge to use 70 of something on a page. I used 70 of my beloved Heidi Swapp photo corners. I love this page. It was rejected, so I did the next one below, using 70 epoxy stickers. Used one of my all-time fave kid books "Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch. And just in case anyone is doing the math, that's 140 of stuff. That's a lotta stuff!


This was to use canvas. The page is on canvas (photos printed on canvas photo "paper"), the letters and stamped elements are cut out of canvas, and that's about that!

I think if I remember this was to use a "found" item...the little heart doily was mine. It and the key were sent to me by a friend a looong time ago, Heather. I miss Heather. Thank you Heather! I used the same photos in my 4459 mini book from the Scrapologie February kit guest designer thing, but they were a mistake print because I had "greyscale" checked. This page was made a long time ago with the "good" photos in colour.

This has been a lovely bloggin interlude in my current work day. Thank you, blogger.

PS. Did I say it's sunny??? I hope everyone has a great day!!

such a beautiful weekend

**warning: long post ahead...consider this a 3-day journal entry :)

Don't get me wrong...the weather was terrible. Cold, wet, and so very dark and grey. Spoke to K on the phone for a long time and laughed our asses off. That was fun. Later Friday my sister Aley came over and it has been a long time since we've properly caught up. We had an evening full of unfinished and come-back-to conversations. She visited China for 2 1/2 weeks over Christmas with her boyfriend and his family. She's got TONS of gorgeous photos and so we're going through them in preparation for me helping her with a China album. I love that I can share this scrap thing with her in a way that interests her (she's not all that crafty...she's the athlete in the family). We were drinking probably a tad too much v. nice red wine and when the evening was finally coming to an end we realized it was 3:45 am!!! I have not stayed up that late for a LONG time. I mean, sometimes if I'm really rolling on a scrapbook page or project I might make it til 1 or 1:30 at that absolute latest. Shocked. It was my turn to sleep in and Dren and Jaxon had plans for Science World on Saturday, so I planned before going to bed that I was just going to sleep until I woke up. So I did. I woke up at 1:30 pm. Nice. I felt like I was 21 again :)

OK so I wake up at 1:30 (kind of groggy but otherwise feeling pretty good), and the boys come home about 1:45 and go to take a nap. Dren asked if I wanted to come, and as tempted as I was I politely declined. I chatted with a neighbour, I helped Carmichael with his homework for a little while, I talked to friends on the phone, I dabbled at trying to clean up and organize, checked the message boards at 'ologie, actually managed to get the dishes done, left two crazy messages for gabby (and I received one return from her today) and enjoyed my quiet space.

Saturday evening Dren made shepherd's (sp?) pie (he make it a very special way, and let's just say that there is lots of butter in the potatoes), and fed us, my mama, and Colleen and Carmichael. After dinner Dren left and me, mum, and Colleen played boggle for a bit. Mum left and we played a game called Tiominos. SO fun. We never finished a game all night...it's one of those ones that just goes on and on in "rounds" until someone reaches 400 points. We just had sooo much fun. Colleen decided her phony-pony was irritating her, so she took it off and put it on me. I didn't get any photos, unfortunately, but just imagine a white as white can be girl with a very cute (and very NOT white) afro-puff pony. Hilarious! I went home with it on and got a wicked laugh out of it with Dren.

Slept in a bit this morning (til 8:30 or so) and had a co-op meeting at 10 that I had totally forgotten about. That screwed up my previous plan to visit Christina before going to Renee's house, supposedly to organize. Yeah No. Anything Renee can do to avoid actually dealing with the ever-growing store of supplies that she was forced to move into her spare bedroom because it outgrew the living/dining area (I'm not kidding), Renee will do. Including planning a spur-of-the-moment trip down to Treasury (my FAVE strictly-scrapbooking store.). But we had a lot of fun...and I did it on a TOTAL budget. I'm so proud of myself. I mean, I didn't not spend, but I didn't use my credit card which I usually would, telling myself I would pay it off right away (which I never do). Made for some interesting shuffling and some real restraint on my part, and some last minute "ok, I can do without that t-shirt and those scissors" at our last stop, and a new fave, Target. I mean, I've always loved target, but I usually spend to much money first at Stampadoodle, Paper Zone, and Treasury that I would feel awful spending more on myself at Target, so it's usually where I buy little treats for the boys since it's the last stop. Well today I bought 2 t-shirts for myself (not boy t-shirt nisa!!) and had a blast looking through all the stuff. Target is seriously fun. I think I could get lost in there for a good couple hours.

We went for dinner, watched a bit of the Oscar's and got home to the Barbary Walters Oscar special. Hi. Could the weekend be any more perfect? The only thing that would have made it more fun would have been to spend a teeny bit more time w/ the boys. I guess a girl needs that fun weekend break once in a while. And man oh man...this was indeed a FUN weekend. My only regret (and I shouldn't call it a regret for all the fun I had), is that I didn't get to actually scrapbook. I just thought about it all weekend. :)

And I still need to clean.

Oh and I have seriously loved reading all the posts of you "lurkers". I know I said this already, but it's really cool to read about different people, about their reason for reading, about where they're from, etc. It's honestly been a pleasure. Thank you for coming, reading, viewing layouts only, leaving a comment, not leaving a comment...thank you!

xoxog

warm & fuzzy &

Loving lurkers all over! SO cool to read about who you are and where you live and why you stop by my blog. Seriously...thanks so much for commenting! It's so cool to know that I've met some of you "in real life" and hopefully over the long haul I'll get to meet more. I'm going to for sure check out some of your blogs and whatnot...hopefully I'll have some free time this weekend to do that.

And by the way...NO problem if you are around and can't/don't want to comment. Really. But for people who think I will think they're weird for commenting? Or who feel weird? Don't. I won't. I promise. I'm weird enough for all of use put together. I love weird.

I feel like I have a lot to say, but I'm actually supposed to be working at my actually very busy job and so I'm somewhat scattered because there is so much going on! I want to be surfing the net, I want to be at home opening a package from K that came today (Dren opened it while we were on the phone...so cute...calls and says "hey babe, paperjax got a biiiig package today"..."whoah babe...there is a LOT of stuff in here." "ok...i'm just going to put it on your chair so nothing gets lost. there are butterflies and wings and stuff...what's that about!?" and "who's k-l-a?"(pronouncing every letter separately), and be on the scrapologie message boards where i am now a brand new proud design team member! oooh...make that "studio girl". Classy, huh? And I want to be making stuff, and sorting stuff out, and hangin with my sister who's dad is in the hospital (we have different dads), and reading my new Home & Garden magazine on colour, and playing boggle and yahtzee and and and....I know there's more. But I just can't remember now. And trying to work in between each blog post sentence isn't really working. So I'm gonna upload some layouts and be on my way.

I have SO many "persons". Seriously. I really do. But Colleen (who doesn't visit my blog, even to lurk) and I have been through ups and downs. We are very different people and she is probably my closest "IRL" friend. LOL. I can't believe I'm 29 years old and talking as if I have imaginary friends. But I definitely do have a lot of scrappy all over the worldish type friends. For real.sies. But Christina ranting about how Meredith is "her person" got me so goose-bumpy that I had to do a layout immediately. And I need more photos printed. Just FYI.


My baby. Feels like I haven't done a layout about him forEVER. It's probably been a week.


Dare 59...wow! That's a lotta dares. This is my friend's daughter Taila. To use a black and white and a colour photo on your page.


OK now really. Seriously. I HAVE to get some work done. Going to do that. Most likely I think for sure maybe. ;)

are there lurkers here? seriously?

hello? are you out there?
i always figure there's like 6-10 people checking this thing on the reg.
then....receiving tips that there are people who read my blog and don't post comments?
quote-unquote-"lurkers"..
why don't you comment?
do you disagree with what i say?
do you hate what you see?
do you roll your eyes?
do you not have enough time?
it's ok. i don't mind. not at all.
but i must admit i am a bit curious.
i don't really care to keep up with tracking how many visitors, etc. come to this blog.
but it doesn't mean i don't care to know.
because i really. am. interested.
seriously.
i have loved getting to know people in this crazy scrapland. loved it.
and now, i must get some sleep.
so, if you're a lurker, post a comment. if you're not, post a comment.
i just wanna know. so sue me ;)
xog

the reason my house is a filthy mess

It's true. I didn't even clean my bathroom. Ew. The thing is, even when I have every intention of cleaning, I get home and all I want to do is scrapbook. It's kind of sick, actually. Seriously in obsession mode. Plus, HELLO!? I have my paper. Yes I do. And now YOU can get it too, with just a few clicks of your mousey.

LOOK: Lazar StudioWERX Cellular & Organic Lines
Only $0.73 per sheet. Hi. We love that.
Now, we all know that Lazar is a smallish company. Canadian, owned and operated by Christina, and well...it's awesome. Of course, this means there is not necessarily the exposure created by the hype and glory of some of the huge brands, so it's very possible that you won't see the paper in your LSS. You can buy it retail through the LSW site OR harass your LSS to order it. Either way, get your hands on it because it's versatile and fun and gorgeous and dammit, I MADE IT. I think perhaps I see a "marketing manager" title in my near future, no? Hee hee!

So, here's some stuff I've been making, and I also wanted to say that these new (to me, anyway) Basic Grey rubons with birds and butterflies and flowers and stuff are my total favourite. I think I could use them on anything. I'm totally going to use them up and then I'll be sad. I might have to steal Renee's because she bought them too.

Oh and the first layout here is 8.5x11...forgot to outline the image so you have no idea where the page begins and ends but oh well...such is life.





And thank you for your comments on yesterday's post. Means a lot and I appreciate it.

human nature

Today I was driving home and while I waited to make a left onto Broadway from Clarke, I noticed a woman begging with a cardboard sign, standing on the median of the busy street. Homeless people are, unfortunately, all over the place in Vancouver. The climate is mild and so people tend to migrate West. The thing about this woman was that she was relatively healthy-looking and fairly well-dress. She had a sweater and hat and gloves on (it's mild, but not spring yet). Her sign read "I'm begging because I have no where to go. I'm all alone. Anything will help." I know lots of people get irritated constantly being asked for money on the street. Dren isn't the most compassionate when it comes to the homeless....he feels like there are resources for people if they really want help. I feel like I'm not necessarily informed enough to judge either way.

As I watched, the woman turned her attention to a truck in the lane just to the right of mine. She stepped off the median into the street. I thought that maybe someone was giving her some change. The light turned green, and I saw her make an animated gesture with her gloved hand. When she turned to walk back to the median she was crying. My heart sunk. I just felt so bad for her. Her face was red from the cold. I honked and pointed to the other side of the street. I stopped at the bus stop and put my hazard lights on. She walked up beside the car and I handed her the lone $5 bill from my wallet. I don't even normally have cash on me, but I remembered that I had change from something yesterday. I told her it was all I had. She said "thank you" and I told her to take care of herself. She said she was trying. I drove away. I felt pressure to get going. It was rush hour and I was on my way to pick Jaxon up. It felt wonderful to be able to do that, but then a feeling of sadness washed over me. I wanted to know what her deal was. I wished that I had offered for her to be able to talk to me if she wanted. I wished that I had had more money or that I could afford to give her more somehow.

As many homeless people as there are in this city, we usually only get to see the negative sides of them...or the parts that we don't understand (much of the city's homeless population suffers from mental illness and/or drug addiction). A glimpse into this woman's life for a brief fleeting moment reminded me that homeless people are still people. This woman, whoever she is, has feelings and a soul.

I don't know why I feel like I should be able to do more...a weird guilt thing that I'm not doing enough, I can't say no, etc. That's my own issue and every time something happens to make me feel those feelings I have the opportunity to learn and grow and change. But on this particular day I also need to remember what I did, that it was just enough for that exact moment, and that it gave me the opportunity to think about people and human nature. To remember that there is enough negativity in the world without assuming there is more.

smells yummy.

fresh

Yesterday I stepped outside at the end of my workday and the rain had stopped. There were patches of blue sky and I took a deep breath. The air felt fresh and clean.

This morning I stepped outside and the sky was clear. The air was crisp. Although I had to scrape frost off my windows before I could leave, I felt like this little glimpse of spring in the air gave me some hope of what's to come. The last couple of weeks have been so grey and rainy and dreary and I was starting to feel it. Nothing like a little sunshine to change your whole perspective.

Here is a peek at my California Medium Book, made mostly with Hambly stuff.







and the rest you can see here (all 18 image oh me oh my).


And here is this week's dare. It was fun to give my brain a break from the deep thinking the dares sometimes (ok, most of the time) provoke. We played with deco scissors this week! Used my "Victorian" ones. Oooh la la.

What a beautiful quote by Sark. I love Sark. Good stuff to look at every once in a while as a refresher on how fabulous this whole being a woman really is. Celebrate it, own it, all that.

Here's to sunshine, Friday, and love in the air.

xoxog

happy heart day!

Look what I got at 3 in the morning (D was so excited he couldn't wait to show me):


And he said: "I hope you don't mind I used your stuff". I'm so lucky.

Happy Valentine's Day to all! xoxoxoxog

sneakysneaky...

bizzy

Feeling busy, disorganized, like I have no time...but come 11:30pm last night I remembered I had a dare page to do. DOH! Yeah.........let's just say thank goodness for bomb ass hambly patterned paper and gorgeous overlays. Makes even simplesimple fun and fabulous.


This weekend will (hopefully be all about catching up on stuff. Including email. Which reminds me, if you winners haven't already emailed me about the paper, please do!

Oh! And my sister is turning 35 on Valentine's Day next week so we're having a bash for her on Saturday. NOTE TO SELF: do not forget camera!!!!!!!

fake smiles and photo with flash (ick)

here's the boy just after makin his pix! (you can totally tell how thrilled he was, right?) He said "pick what?" "for who?" and "for what?" before I said, "ok, now I have to take a picture of you" and he said "oh. yeah. i've done this before". thrilled i tell you. I'm writing with an interesting mix of capitalization and not. Oh! But you probably want to know WHO he picked right?

drumroll please! oh the drama......




yay! i LOVE giving stuff away. Too bad I'm not independently wealthy so I could give stuff away all the time every day all day. And thank you all so much for your feedback and for leaving a comment. I wish I could have given 50 sets of paper away!! But I think Chris might have not been completely supportive of that idea. Hee!

So thank you all for sharing in the joy of this whole experience with me, and please email me (genevieves@shaw.ca) with your addresses, Liza, Anke, Sarah, Jill & Laura!

xog

OK

So not normally me, but this is going to have to wait til tomorrow. I'm SORRY ladies! I had SUCH a long day and am just sitting down @ the computer right now, as J is being read to by his daddy. No name picking for him today! I'm thrilled with the response though, and can't wait for J to pick 3 (or maybe 5 *winkwink*) names from the list tomorrow!

May everyone be having sweet dreams.

so speaking of paper (edited)

was i? speaking of it?
whatev.
apparently the lazar paper with my fingerprints (literally...please find them) on it is due off the press like in a weekish or so.....
SO.
anyone want some paper?
(chris...you WILL hook me up w/ some paper right 'yo? *winkwink*)
ha!
so, chris-willing........
who wants to be the first to receive soma-this paperjax action?
(in case you need to see it's here)
POST. NOW.
i have turned on comment moderation because my blog was being attacked by horrible spamming awfullness. please don't be mad.

we (k2, nis, k & me) learned that it's a little challenging to match w/ other pps, but i challenge each and every one of you. of course it's great on its own, and of course i want to see the coolest shiz ever made with it. (hello? bring it).
do i sound like myself? it's late. one membership "wine and cheese" co-op meeting later.
whatev.
clearly.

**eta: jaxon will be my helper and pick 3 names tomorrow to receive both lines. keep postin!

lazy sunday

One of the best kinds of days, in my opinion. It's pouring rain outside. I lounged and dozed as we all watch Lord of the Rings this morning. Showers at 2:30pm. A little cleaning, a little surfing, a little colouring and then playing Lord of the Rings with transformers. Could there be anything better?

I have to share a couple of photos. The first is not exactly the most flattering photo ever. I literally leaped into the Lazar booth to see my paper and all the layouts. For some reason, I was compelled to promptly sit on the floor and try to hug the wall. Right then. Me, in all my glory, giving the wall a little love:


And just to offset that one with a photo of myself that I actually like (so much so that I had to ask if it was me)....Can I explain how amazing Nisa is? I mean, the girl can shoot.



And now back to regularly-scheduled lazy sunday programming.

clearly, it's friday

I think it's so neat how when you hang out with a bunch of friends you gradually adopt mannerisms and phrase-isms and word-isms and accents from eachother. I was fully speaking American by the end of day 3. CLEARLY.

Today, it's Friday. My second day back at work and already it's the weekend. That rocks.

Friday means: Dare 56 Day. Hell to the yizzah.
Brought to you by Sarah B. Love this girl. She's radical.



I'm also already scrapping photos from our Cali trip. Started a mini book...just have to add journalling and 'bellis. So much cool product coming out of CHA!