So many stamps...so little time

Here is a fun card that I had lots of fun creating, and I used A Muse stamps that I piced up from Carousel today :)! Once I took these two pictures I thought my card was lacking something, and so I traced the words using my newSilver Spica pen...there we go it sparkles now :D. I also thought that it was lacking something up in the left hand corner of the card, so I added those popular chrystals (which I can't remember how to spell right now, sorry!) and there I was thrilled with how my card turned out. LOVE the saying too: "So many stamps....so little time!" I am sure no one who is crafty has this problem *wink, wink*...right Julie????

Thanks for stopping by my blog and takin a peek :)!

Hugs,
catherine

Xmas Card

Felt like making a xmas card tonight, and so here is what I came up with...still not too sure about this card...will have to play around with it a bit more after I got a pot of coffee on :).
Oh yeah, before I forget...we are all fine here too after hurricane Kyle just had a few trees around our neighbourhood fall down. No power outage here although from what I hear there were 800 customers in my area without power. I live 1/2 hour or so from Julie's place, and I would have to say that the wind lasted longer out here by me then it did in the city. I am very tired, and am planning on going to bed early since the howling wind and a hard day (sick hubby...need I say more?? You gals know what I am talking about).

Hugs,
catherine

Please Check this video out

http://www.whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com/videos/view/id/408214

Wow, what an amazing video about Autism...one little girls story, was hard for me to watch since we are on the waiting list for our 4 year old son to be assessed by the Autism team at our local children's hospital. We have an appointment for Oct. 7th, will let you know how it goes ! In the meantime please check out this video.

Hugs,
catherine

Win a bedroom set for your child (not my contest)

I found this blog called 5 Minutes for mom several months ago, anyways they usually have a lot of giveaways and really great information too. Today, they are having a photo contest to win a bedroom set...if you would like to enter just click on the above link to check out the details there. Here is my entry for it :)! Here is my dd who just fell over playing with her toys in our living room, I came in to find her laying there snoring...too cute :)!

Hugs,
catherine

My first bagel attempt

Here are cinammon raisin bagels that I made our middle son who is on a restricted diet, and so I made these with different flours, and egg replacer and stuff like that. They are good, but I think if I made them again I would put in more cinammon because the one's I made were faint tasting like cinammon.
Best part is he LOVES them :)!

Hugs,
catherine

Children's play

These pictures were taken Saturday morning, as my dh and all 3 of my children prepared for Hurricane Kyle and did usual chores around the house. Well, here is what the 3 kids thought was important to be doing to prepare for the hurricane...lol. Important work being done with our dump trucks, diggers, shovels, dora buckets and the wagon. This picture is of my oldest son and my dd :)!








Here is my dd playing with her favorite bucket, well that is until her middle brother decided that bucket wasn't fit for her to play with. Gotta luv older brothers!!! Miss Independent she is, her oldest brother was over trying to help her and she got so angry at him...she wanted to do it herself.






My oldest son LOVES all these heavy equipment operator trucks, every time we see one out on the highway or at a construction site we have to stop and watch them work for awhile. My Birthfather is a heavy equipment operator of a grader, so when my oldest spots one he thinks that it is always Poppy Phillips driving it (which it isn't because he works over in Newfoundland).




hugs,
Catherine

Grey's Anatomy

Yep, Yep, Yep, last night was the season premier of Grey's Anatomy and I just had to stay up to watch it even though I was really really tired. Wow, is what I have to say...what a great premier...mind you I missed the last 15-20 minutes because I had to goto bed if I was expected to function as a good mommy this morning. I don't want to ruin it for you Grey's fans that might not have seen it yet, so I will wait to say what I have to say about it for a few more days but I will say this: I am super glad that this is back on to watch every week...
Anyone know if Private Practice is coming back on too??

Hugs,
catherine

Cute Christmas card

I was at PhotoMemories yesterday, I was looking for some pretty patterned paper for a sympathy card but in the end I didn't find any that I thought was fitting. Anyways, I did come across this super cute stamp though and I just couldn't leave it there because it looked like one of those stamps that you could have a lot of fun with :D.
First here is the outside of the card, with some beautiful snowflake flourished patterned paper that I found at PhotoMemories the last time I was there. I used ribbon from Michael's (which I need more of), the cardstock is from SU and the cute stamp that I used is inside the card...here check it out, is it cute or what?? Going to try to make some more cards using this stamp, will show you what I come up with :D.






While I was also there at Photomemories, I came across a great deal....I found one of those bags that comes with a magnetic carousel that you can attach or just use seperately.
It isn't one of the small one's it is one of the larger style bags, and it was 25% off the regular price which was $45 I think :)! I couldn't leave it there either, especially since I am forever trying to cram some ink pads, some markers, some tacky tape, some bling, some stamps, some ribbon etc. in my Michael's recycleable bag that I got last year. Now I will be organized when I go out for crafty nights, I am excited for the next one now...
So next thing to do on my list for my crafty room is figure out what to do with my unmounted stamps, and also those cd/ATS rubberstamps...by what to do with them I mean where to put them. Right now I have my cd stamps, the ATS stamps and my Nestabilities (that are in cd cases) just sitting on different shelves and I would like a spot just for them...hmmm...might have to chat with my dh or hit those yardsales to see if there are any shelving out there :D!
Oh yeah, on that note of my dh he is in the process of making the ink pad/marker holders for the gals at my crafty nights....as far as I know he has finnished one ink pad holder and perhaps evena marker holder. Just to let you know the production line is well on it's way :D!!


Hugs,
catherine

Church family retreat '08

Every year we have gone to our churches annual family retreat at a wonderful camp called Camp Mush-a-Mush, and this past weekend was when it was. It isn't just for families, anyone can go, and any age too :D! This year we had a record turn out of youth, and not too many adults but for the most part it is the same people who go which is sort of frustrating for the organizers. We want new faces and new families to come, but not too sure how to go about getting more new people out.
This first picture is of my father in law setting up the "Flying Fox", yep that was a popular thing I must say with all ages as well. I know that my mother in law, my father in law, our senior pastor and myself all went down the flying fox but I think I was the only one who bailed out half way down the ride. See my problem is that I am 6 feet tall, and the other problem is that there was a tree root sticking up out of the ground half way down the line and then there was a tree that was too close for my liking. So you can see where I am going with this...I started out with perfect technique, then I noticed that my backside had it's name written all over that root (I could feel the pain before I even got to it) but I missed it :D! Then along came that tree shortly after the root, and it had my name written all over it...so I bailed before I got to it but I also landed awkwardly (the only way us tall people know how to fall or bail out of things) . Anyways, I was thrilled to see that my trip down didn't deter my mother in law, one of the senior pastors of our church and several other people to continue down this zip line. Lol....I am hoping they will find a new spot for this zip line next year, one without roots and trees to hug :D!


The next picture is of a fun family game called "The Great Canadian Egg Drop", but this year we did the "Great Canadian Egg Float"!! For this you can use anything that the leader gives you, and in our case here is what we were given:
~Egg
~elastic bands
~popsicle sticks
~balloons
~2L pop bottle
~string
~tape
~several plastic tie offs
and a few other things I am sure that I have forgotten, but the items you use could be anything the leader wanted these are the things he chose. The goal is to work together in a team of people of all ages to create a boat that will carry your egg in the lake from point A to point B without sinking or breaking. Let's just say my teams balloon boat didn't do so hot!! It was a lot of fun though :)! Incase you were wondering what you do for the "Great Canadian Egg Drop", here is what you do: do everything you did above but the goal is to not have your egg break when dropped from great heights. This picture is of one of the teams, trying to create a winning egg boat!
Here is the Youth pastor of our church trying to blow up one of those long long skinny balloons for my team, since my team couldn't get it blown up or even started. Look at how pink he is turning...he gave up shortly after this picture was taken and we don't blame him either! No matter how many times you streched your balloon, and no matter how many different ways you tried to blow up the balloon it wouldn't work (break out your bike pumps).







Here is my middle child with his "own" egg boat creation, pretty good I thought :)! Sorry, that this picture is kind of dark...the main lodge didn't exactly have the best lighting for picture taking.







This next picture is of one of the Youth leaders who was taking pictures of the whole weekend, and I thought she should be included in a picture. I really like this picture, lol :)! Thank you so much Heather for all your wonderful work you do with the Youth :)!

Now these next couple of pictures are taken during the "free time" we had, and here are some of the things you could do:

~play paintball (my dh was running this)
~baseball
~play at the beach
~go for walks
~help in the kitchen preparing meals
~do cross stitch (my mother in law usually does this during free time)
~or just sit and enjoy eachothers company over a cup of coffee
~Enjoy the "flying Fox"





Here is a picture that I took of one of my children with another friend of his at the beach they have their at the camp. Here they are just digging a deep hole using the Tonka Trucks we brought, am always amazed at how popular these trucks are.









Here is Heather again taking a picture of a flower, and this time she didn't notice me taking this picture of her *tee hee*. I just love getting those candid shots, just because they make for great photos. Perhaps it is because they are unexpected, and they are fun :)!






Ahhh yes, I forgot I took these two pictures of my middle son...here is my scientific child, my cause and effect child. What a guy, this is something he just LOVES to do...play with water!!! It is actually one of the tools we use to help calm him down when we feel he is having a sensory overload...and boy does it work...he stayed here doing this for 1/2 hour or more. I love watching him explore his world the way he does, because it is so different from what you or I would do.




Here is another picture taken shortly after the other one, wanted to sort of get two different shots of what he was doing. It is really interesting to see things through the eyes of a very sensitive child, by sensitive I mean that all his senses are hightened more than yours or mine. Things that don't bother us, bother him 2 times more or worse!!





Here is one of our Senior pastors enjoying time at the beach too, he is talking with lots of the little children that are running around the camp as well as some of the adults. Glad to see you at camp this year Pastor Bob :)! I think I must also apologize now for whom ever that is I got the back of...didn't realize I got them in the shot too.







From right to left we have the pastors wife, mother of the little boy who was playing with my oldest at the beach, the grandmother and not too sure who the other person is. Sorry person I can't tell who you are from here...lol...oh boy that's bad!









At last here is my dd finally posing for mommy, what a cutie pie she was but for some reason the angle of this shot looks kind of odd. Lol, and I wasn't at an odd position or angle either...hmmm!!!








Here is my dd trying to be Miss Independent, *sniff, sniff* she isn't allowed to be Miss Independet yet (she's not 2 yet)...but she certainly knows what she wants and when she wants it. Lol, what a face!!! Beautiful looking campground eh??










Here is one of the Youth taking a turn on the "Flying Fox", I had to take this picture to show her Mom ( a good friend of mine). She made it past the root and the tree :)!








The last picture I have is of my oldest son and another friend of his helping serve up lunch at the camp. Each person is to sign up for 2 meals, either to help prep for it or clean up...it works really well I must say :)! I think the kitchen is where you'd find my oldest for probably most of the retreat, after every meal he would help clean up and then he'd be there to help prepare for it. What a guy :)!



Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a great weekend :)!

Hugs,
catherine

Sympathy Card

I was in need of a sympathy card for a lady in our congregation at our church, she just lost her husband to cancer on Sept 23 rd and they have been a part of the church for years. Anyways, I thought it would be nice to send them off a card and offer up a meal to them since I know they have other things on their minds right now.
The flower stamp that I used for this card is from the Hero Arts stamp set called Solid Flower Flourishes (it comes with 3 others flower flourish stamps), what a beautiful set this is and then to top it off I used my circle (classic and scallop) Nestabilities. I also used the Flourishes with birds Cuttlebug embossing folder on the cards base, thought it would make the card more elegant :)!





Hugs,
catherine

Would like to know...

I would like to know who of my readers is having problems leaving comments on my blog?? A few people have told me they can't leave comments, but I sorted that out or so I thought. Blogger is telling people who can't leave a comment that it has something to do with my old e-mail addy, I ran on over and changed all e-mail addy's (several mos ago) to my new one. I dunno...


Hugs,
Catherine

More of Reen's Creations Blog Candy up for grabs

Check out Reen's blog she has some pretty neat blog candy up for grabs, hurry on over and do what I did:

~leave a comment on her blog with the link to your blog
~Run on over to your blog and leave a post on it about her blog candy.

Hugs,
catherine

Happy Fall

Just wanted to wish everyone a HAPPY FIRST DAY of FALL :)! Here is my fall challenge for you: I would like you to go out for a walk/hike somewhere and enjoy the great outdoors. Then to come home and enjoy one of your favorite hot drinks :)!

Hugs and hope you have a great walk :)!

Am I a Scrap Addict blog's candy

Please head on over to Deanne's blog for some yummy blog candy, you l Oct 5th I believe but sometimes life get's in the way and we forget about signing up for some great candy.

Hugs,
catherine

My Heart to Heart Card

Here is the card that I created for the Heart To Heart blog giveaway, I used the stamp set from Papertrey called Spiral Bouquet and the sentiment is also from this stamp set. The cardstock I used is from SU, the ribbon I used is from Michael's :)! Just to let you know there are lots of companies who have donated stuff for this giveaway and 3 of these companies are:

~Verve Visual
~Score-it!
~Unity Stamp Company

and I forgot to mention 2 people who donated a card or something to this giveaway: Beate Johns and Cambria Turnbow made beautiful cards :)!!

Have a super day :)!

Heart to Heart Blog Candy

Over at Carolyn Kings blog, she has a HUGE blog candy give away and by huge this is what I mean:


One lucky person will win over $1000 in prizes plus all the handmade gifts and cards too!!!

Pretty impressive I thought, and just to name 3 companies involved with this great prize they are:

~Unity Stamp Company
~Score it!
~Verve Visual

So please hurry on over to her blog and check it out...I am on my way right now to make my card and get it into the mail this morning. Hurry on over, and don't miss out. A special thank you to everyone who donated the goodies and also to Carolyn King for having this HUGE giveaway :)!

Hugs to you all,
Catherine

Thank you card

I was in need of a "Thank you" card, because we are going to an annual church family retreat this weekend and the speaker there is a good friend of ours. Anyways, here is the card that I created for her...it is kind of hard to tell but I used the new branch with leaves cuttlebug folder on the base of the card.
The stamp that I used for this card is from Impression Obsession, and I have to say that I LOVE this stamp. Oh, what am I saying I LOVE ALL stamps :D! The cardstock is all SU cardstock, the ribbon I got from Michael's several months ago, I used my SU markers to color in the image.


Go on, get creating I dare ya :)!

Hugs,
catherine

We have a date :)!

No I am NOT preggers!! We have been on a long waiting list to get our 4 year old son assessed by the Autism Assessment team at our local children's hospital, and we found out yesterday Oct.7th in the morning is our appointment. Hurray :)!!! Maybe now we can find out what is really going on, and get the help we need for him...fingers crossed but I am so excited just had to tell you all :)!!!

Hugs,
catherine

Need new eyes and a new brain

Lol, okay thank you Tracy for that....I am apparently more sleep deprived than I thought, I need new eyes and a new brain. Sheesh, okay so I can still enter in that contest *yeah me*...lol, I need a break!

Hugs,
catherine

Wild Dragon Flies Designs brekkie blog candy

Here is a link to Danielle's site : http://wilddragonflydesigns.blogspot.com , she has "brekkie Blog candy" up for grabs and so you should hurry on over and check out her great blog :)!

Hugs,
catherine

Beasts outside my house

Well, my whole road is getting paved *HURRAY* and it really really needs it but I didn't realize they'd be bringing out the big guns here to pave it. Now there is hardly any room for people to pass by them, they have to drive on the sides of the road close to the ditches and you have to follow the "follow me truck". So now they are all sitting outside my house waiting, and I am hoping they will be done in an hour since I have to go get my son from the bus stop...not looking very promising since these aren't fast moving trucks. I have 4 steam rollers outside (lol, how many steam rollers does it take to pave a small country road???) , and lots and lots of dump trucks...got these pics to share with you :)! If you are a little boy this is the place to be, quite the happening spot :p! Umm...gotta run outside to save my garbage bins from all the traffic and steam rollers, thought my dh put those away the other day guess not...*sigh*
I think I have a bit more time than I thought to get those bins in, because I think it is lunch time since they are at a dead stop and no one is going anywhere and they are all standing around. Or perhaps they are all standing around and watching the others work...I dunno!! My poor driveway has never seen so much traffic, lol, they are all using it to back up to turn around in...
Here is a pic of 1-2 steam rollers, plus one of my neighbours going home...thought I should add the steam roller in here for those of you who have little boys :)!



Hugs,
catherine

Coffee??

I got the new Oct.2008 Paper Crafts Magazine yesterday at a Superstore (my grocery store) and I was planning on entering that HUGE card making contest. So I sat down right away to make a card, I made it then I read farther a long on the next page, turns out all entries had to have a post mark no later than Oct 13th. I was a little disappointed, anyways here is the card that I created last night for that contest but won't submit it...
Speaking of coffee time to go make some :)!

Hugs,
catherine

New Necklace I made

I am sort of getting into that "Memory Wire" necklace thing now, I am now moving on to trying to make cool pendants for my necklaces and am trying to find a good site that teaches me how to wire wrap beads. Anyways, last night I started playing around and made this necklace...I LOVE how it turned out. Lol, now I need you to guess what the pendant is and I am hoping someone can get it...we'll see though. Hoping someone will guess a apple tree...lol, anyone see an apple tree there??






Hugs,
catherine

Christmas card maybe

Here is a card that I created using a Artful stamper stamp that I picked up from the "Cutting Garden" over the weekend. Thought it looked like a nice Christmas card, but I am not entirely sold on that idea yet :)! The patterned paper is by Stampin Up, LOVE that patterned paper...




Hugs,
catherine

What an amazing little guy I have

I hope you have your kleenex boxes ready there next to you :)! This afternoon after I picked up my oldest son from a Bday party at the Art Gallery in the city, we stopped off at Sobeys to drop off some of my cards for Kim. My oldest asked me why I was dropping off cards to Kim, because he knows that Kim can make her own cards (lol, too funny) and so I explained to him why I was dropping them off. That Kim needed them to sell, so that she could raise money for a friend of hers because she is sick...to that he said that he wanted to do something for her too! He sat in the van quietly as I drove to Sobeys, then he said "Mommy, I can have more lemonade stands and then give Kim the money for her friend!" I told him that was a great idea, but that usually Lemonade stands happen in the summer time and not so much in the school year and he said "I guess people aren't that hot anymore are they mommy!" He then said that he wanted to take all his piggy bank money and give it to Kim and her friend, because she needs it...I was just about in tears. I asked him if this is really what he wanted to do, and he said "Yes mommy, this is what I am supposed to do!" WOW eh?? He amazes me :)!

Hugs,
catherine

A Little Boy Bday card/wrapping paper

I didn't have any cool wrapping paper for a little boy about 6 years old, so I luckily had some of that wonderful paper you get on a roll from the post office. I used my buggy stamp set from Inkadinkado, I created this fun paper...after I wrapped the gift in this my 4 year old claimed the scraps for a "inbention" *invention*. Then I wanted to create a fun card for him as well, so my 6 year old came to my rescue because he chose the stamp set I would use for this card. Here is the card that we created together :)! Cute eh?? My oldest son told me that his friend is "going to go crazy when he see's this card".






Have a super creative weekend and hugs to you all,
catherine

Wedding Invitation round 1

My sister is getting married next year at Christmas time, and has asked me to make their wedding invitations :)! So here is my first draft of the card with the colors that she wanted, hoping that you all will let me know what you think :). Her colors are Gold and burgandy....what do you think I should change or leave alone???

Hugs,
catherine

TY, Deborah you are such a sweetie :)!

Thank you so much Deborah for your beautiful card, and the Gem brads that you included in your card...it made my day to find this in my mailbox :)! I know that it took a lot of work (well at least I think it is a lot of work, since I tried to do this technique at your place), to create this card :).







Hugs to you all,
Catherine

Trina's Timless Treasures blog

Please run on over to Trina's Timless Treasures Blog, because she has a fun card challenge over there. It has also been a long time since I did a card challenge too, so I thought what the heck...I will give this one a whirl :)! LOVE the tree stamp by the Artful Inkables, and the sentiment came from the set by Papertrey called "Spiral Bouquet". Two beautiful "must HAVE" sets :)!



Happy Creating,

Catherine

The happiness is there again

Hard to believe this day has come, you are probably wondering what exactly I mean by that statement...well let me tell you :)! My 4 year old son has been having some behavioral issues since he was 3, he has been having Sensory Integration issues too and it is hard to explain but it is like the light in his eyes just wasn't there. Anyways, my dd didn't feel safe around him or never wanted to play with him at all or hug him...it seems she is always looking over her shoulder to see if he is flying around the corner without looking where he is going. Well, we have had him on a restricted diet (no dairy, eggs, corn, wheat, sugar, juice, or fruit* he can have 2 servings of fruit a day*) for about 3 weeks now and let me tell you the change is AMAZING :)! Last Tuesday I wasn't too sure that this diet thing was working, so I took him off just to see what it has done for him...let's just say complete and utter chaos errupted! He went from being a very verbal child to a non verbal child in a short period of time, he just grunted, groaned and screamed at high pitches. He became so frustrated/upset that he cried all afternoon and evening, so I put him to bed early and vowed to never take him off that diet again!!
I took this picture yesterday, and I had to share it with you...look at them sitting there happily and she wasn't trying to get away. Since he has been on this diet the light has come back into his eyes, his little sister has wanted to hug him constantly and she wants to play with him :)! I am just amazed that something so simple could cause such chaos, but now the challenge is to figure out what of those things he can't have is the cuplrit for that huge change in him??? It really makes me think, that we all should go back to what our grandparents used to eat...by that I mean meats, veggies, homemade things that don't contain processing or deep frying. I know, I know, you don't have time...but do you know what think of the changes you might experience if you start eating those things again??? Worth a try right, worth the time???

Anyways, that's enough rambling from me today :)!

Hugs,
catherine

Simplicity

I wanted to make a simple "Thank you" card for a friend of mine, and here is what I came up with...pretty simple and yet elegant (sorta) :)! The patterned paper came from one of my patterned paper slabs from K&Company pads from Walmart, you have to check out these beautiful papers there. The stamped image that I used is from Inkadinkado set (has an owl on a branch in the set too), and the sentiment is one of Michael's clear acrylic stamps from the Studio G line.


Hugs,
Catherine

My boys

Yesterday, was the first day of Grade 1 for my oldest and I forgot to take a picture because I was stressed out enough as it was. I also didn't take one of our middle child when he started Pre-school last week....bad mommy, lol! So since I was actually running early this morning I did a quick photoshoot of the boys, this was the best pic I took of them. I still can't believe how much the boys, well actually all three children have grown up so much...in just a blink of an eye. Well, I gotta run now to pick up the oldest from his bus stop, then off to my mom's to pick up her, then run over to my son's preschool to pick him up and then back to my mom's for supper :).

Hugs,

catherine

Another fun card

I used one of the other cute stamp sets that I got in the mail the other day, from All That Scraps and it is called "Sweet Treats". LOVE these characters a lot :)! For the background I used a background stamp called "Design Block Butterfly" *shh don't tell Julie that there are butterflies on this background stamp*. For this card I also had stamped, then cut out the snail and the dragon fly...then used dimensionals to have them stand up off the card a bit.

Hugs,

Catherine

Monkey business

I have been waiting awhile for this stamp set to arrive in my mailbox, it has been almost a month and half now for this to arrive along with 3 other sets. I LOVE these sets, they are too cute :)! Here is a card that I created using the All That Scraps stamp set called "Summertime Fun". I am also hoping to try out the "Backpack card" today too, using a tutorial I found the other day. Will let you know how that goes...

Oh yeah, my blog counter is also getting up there...it will be time for blog candy soon enough :)!

Happy stamping,

catherine