Jemmas Journey

Getting Dotty

2009-11-08T10:53:00.004-07:00

Its almost time for the first ever...

There will be tons of great inspiration, blogs to hop, people to meet and prize packages galore!

Don't forget to send in to the DOTTY DIVA BLOG your entry's for this months challenge, you have until the 20Th of November to get them in.

An amazing Label Tulip Kit is up for grabs!!!

Challenge 4 ad ...

The second i saw this ad i knew what i wanted to do and made Bar pose for these photos, here is my lo

i call this ...

2009-11-08T10:24:00.001-07:00

Big Foot Little Westie

i went to get my first pedicure yesterday with some girlfriends and i have to say i had fun!! i did however want bar to take some pictures of my cute toes and the cute flowers on my toes he took this ... not so cute, until i saw the westie in the background ... see i really do have huge feet ;)

I forget

2009-10-29T06:28:00.001-07:00

I forget ...

Sometimes I forget just how lucky I am. Sometimes I dwell on the bad things that have happened.

I am so very very lucky, I have some amazing friends who are there for me when I need them even if I haven’t been there for them much when they were/are going through a rough time.

I am so lucky to have such a great family and I really really mean that there are quite a lot of us and I seriously love each and every one of them. I hate that I speak with them and remember just how much I love them and how great they are, we are all pretty different but we have know each other our whole lives and we would stand by each other fiercely.

Id forgotten, just how very lucky I am!!

Thank you guys and you know who you are I really am thankful to have you in my life and I will try harder to keep in touch!

xxxxx

Dotty Diva's Forum

2009-10-13T06:29:00.000-07:00

Dotty Diva's have a new forum HERE

go check it out :)

Design Team Call

2009-10-11T14:29:00.002-07:00

Scrapbook Star has a DT Call out at the moment ...

Here are the details

Scrapbook Star is searching for very talented Canadian Design Team Members to begin their terms on January 3rd 2010. If you consider yourself to be creative, team oriented and love our site and store please send the following to dtcontest@scrapbookstar.ca 3-5 recent projects that best represent your usual style
Please make sure your name is in the file title such as “janesmithbelieve.jpg”
Please keep files to under 100kb in size

Please include the following:
*Full name, address & phone number
* Other Design Teams you are a member of
* A link to your online gallery or blog
* Why you would like to be part of the team

Here is what is expected from a Design Team Member:
*You must be active on our online message boards as well as in our gallery. (Minimum 50 posts per week)
*You must post your work in our gallery. This includes the project you will make with your monthly kit, as well as at least 2 other items (altered, cards, LO’s etc)
*Projects made with your monthly kit must be scanned at high resolution and emailed to the store (photos are not acceptable)
*Participate in our monthly online crops by posting challenges
*Promote the site to friends and family.
**Design Team members cannot be part of any other Canadian design team (for retail & online stores and communities).

Compensation:
Each second month you will receive a kit valued at over $30. On opposite months you will get an allowance to use on any product you like. All Design Team Members receive a store discount on all purchases.

The position will be for a 3 month trial at which point both parties may chose to terminate. Afterwards the term will last for another 9 months at which point Design Team members will have to reapply for their position
Call deadline is November 20th 2009 at midnight EST. ***************************************************

Great store and great on line boards :)

Little Update :)

2009-10-07T20:02:00.002-07:00

I thought id show you how im spending my time these days

spending time with my boys ... becuase lets be honest they are THAT CUTE!!

Managed to get this photo of Hamish, i think he is saying stop enough photos!!!

oh we had our first snow fall last saturday and weve had a fair bit since then but thankfully its not lying, it is cold though :(

HOCKEY season is back and i got a new top ... actually bar got a new top and i was "allowed" to wear his old one. However if they lose the game tonight i probably wont be allowed to wear it ever again!

The spamster has been cold so he has shacked up with Ducky (thanks nicole ;) ) spooning is his new favourite pastime!

more shots of said snow

Other than that we are just hitting month end at work so long hours and trying to get things to balance ... kinda fun kinda sucks

More updates soon ... promise!!

Coming to you live from ....

2009-09-26T10:31:00.002-07:00

Hamilton Airport .... yip really not that exciting and trust me i wish i was somewhere else as well!!!!

Things have been a bit crazy, i keep saying, and believing, that my life will calm down and it wont be crazy ... and well ... i think im coming to the realization that my life will always be crazy.

Last Sunday i flew to Hamilton and then drove to Pittsburgh ... silly immigration laws. Im a permanent resident of Canada but you need a PR card to travel in and out of the country by Plane, Train or Boat, but because i am legal i can drive across the boarder, hence the flight and drive. The drive is 6 hours and to be honest nearly all the way its beautiful and lovely and i really couldn't complain...

I spent a week at our plant site which is actually just outside Pittsburgh, i have had an awesome time, some days i was actually laughing until i cried so much fun with the girls down there!! And i even seemed to get a LOT of work done, we worked hard but tried to make it fun at the same time so it didnt seem like we were working so hard!

i tried some local restaurants that i have only seen in films before ... that was kinda fun

then of course there were the groundhogs they are so so cute i was so excited the local Pittsburgh people not so much ... same with blue jays!!

other than that i spend most of my time eating or at target ... oh how i love target... i didnt get too much but i did get some stuff i have been after for a while so that worked out!

Tonight im going to get back to Calgary pretty late and i have to say i cant wait to see spaz and get a cuddle. and the HAM-ster too of course ;)

believe it or not i didnt even take one photo whilst i was away so i have nothing to share ....

hope everyone else has been having a great weekend!!

CHECK IT OUT

2009-09-17T19:53:00.001-07:00

ANAM is raising funds to enable her to stay in Canada with an awsome Auction.

The Auction ends tomorrow - GO CHECK IT OUT

she has updated the prices so you know what you need to bid ... now get to it ;)

A lil bit of scrappy time

2009-09-07T21:28:00.002-07:00

Thank you all for your comments, Bar is doing OK, i think we both just want to get the bottom of it and make sure he is getting the right treatment!

I have to say that ive been pretty tired most of the weekend with everything that happend.

I did manage to speak on the phone with my cousin Kim in NZ for 3 hours and i managed a couple of LOs

this first one is based on this weeks sketch over at Scrapbook Star ...
ive been doing a lot of thinking about what has happened throught my life and where i go from here.

the second LO is last weeks SS sketch a LO about our trip to Royal Tyrell with Lisa and Alan

Right i have to get to bed now as its 10.40 and i have an EARLY morning tomorrow!!

Hope everyone had a great long weekend!!

Remember Me?

2009-09-05T19:47:00.003-07:00

Things have been crazy around here.

I started my new job and the people i work with are fantastic!!

If you want to read more about the company and the clean energy we make there website is here ... ALTER NRG

Then last weekend i tried out my friend Nicole's "Run of 10 Hills" ok i just walked it and i think i missed two hills but i did it and it was great fun. Leah came along with us and it was great to catch up!

Then we headed to the Calgary Corn Maze, awesome fun :)

So this weekend i was due to go to Siobhan and Alex's wedding, they got married today and i hope everything went fantastically well.

Instead i have pretty much spend the last two days in tears ..... oh and i lost my heart to a new man ... more about that later!

Thursday night we had dinner went to bed about 10pm

12pm Bar woke up with sever stomach cramps and bloating, bent over double in pain. I got him some boiled milk and a hot water bottle and went back to bed ... i think i said something like, well maybe you shouldnt have eaten so much loser ...

4am im woken up he wants me to take him to A&E (ER)

4.30am we are at the hospital

4.00pm he is finally seen and the tests are done

some work was done but i wont go into the gory details ....

7.00pm we are told he is going to need surgery

7.01 - i freak out saying NO just NO

we are told we will wait to speak to other specialists tomorrow and go from there ....

today we saw the specialist and she agreed with us that surgery should be the LAST option, she was awesome she was fantastic, explained everything, gave us background information, i felt really comfortable with her as did Barry which is great because she is going to become his specialist!

IT was HORRIBLE, i wanted to be strong for Barry but i felt like i had no one to support me ...

(for those of you who dont know Bar has suffered from Crohn's since he was 15 you can see more information HERE)

MY WORK WERE FANTASTIC like beyond fantastic, it was OK that i didnt come into work, they were supportive, which lead to more tears!

then today, they sent some magazines and a card to him, how nice and touching ... which of course set off more tears.

Good news is that he is home and has a specialist, he has some more tests to go through which will not be pleasant! but its better to get them over with!

Anyways, i have a new man now, there was a lady in Bars ward with him (a room of three people) and we were speaking with her etc and her two sons came in Lucas and Eric, OMG SO SO CUTE

Lucas is such a little flirt, he is super cute and friendly and i just wanted to steal him and take him home, OMG such a great wee dude!!!

BUT the poor wee man has had three open heart surgery's and one more to go ... my heart just broke in two such a wonderful wee thing. The good news is that he is doing great!!! he isnt lacking behind his peers at all and he has the most infectious personality that YOU WILL fall in LOVE with him!!!

i wish the family all the very very best.

Ive said this before and all the problems we are going through to have a baby and i just think its so much better to not be able to have one, than to have one and lose it or to watch him go through so much!!

Ok this has been a really heavy post how about some fun links?

Anam my wonderful friend is having an auction of some amazing items over on her blog, to raise money for her Canadian PR... remember how frantic i was without mine?

ANYWAYS CHECK IT OUT HERE!

And anyone up for a freebie??

How about Freebie Friday over at Creative Chaos??

FREEBIE FRIDAY

ALSO my challenge and LO went up last week

HERE

My Sketch

My LO

(sorry for the links, blogger wont let me post photos)

Dotty Diva's challenge 2 is up :)

HERE

Great AD and great inspiration from the DT AND the prize will be posted anywhere - GET YOUR LO UP, seriously nothing to lose and a great prize to win

ok i hope everyone else is having a way better weekend than mine has been so far

xxx

Surprise!!!!

2009-08-16T20:12:00.004-07:00

I bet if you read this blog you thought i was going to come back with nothing to show for my weekend ....

Well this weekend I ...

Worked for 4 Horus

Ate too much at the taste of Calgary

Went to the Cinema to see Julie and Julia - loved it, laughed and cried!

Did grocery shopping - TWICE - YUCK

Phoned UK twice and Skyped them

Watched a little too much TV

Got all my laundry done

Ate at Thai Thai - my new addiction

Found the most AMAZING cupcakes in China Town - the lemon ones are AMAZING id KILL for one - Bliss Cupcakes - all natural apart from the blue icing. The lemon one has lemon in the sponge AND in the icing, sigh soooooo goooooood

Ate way too much of Barry's yummy food, turkey meatballs and spaghetti, ten bruschetta for dinner tonight - so goooood

AND Scrapped!!!

This was my LO for the Scrapbook Star on-line Crop this weekend using the August Kit:

Like i said in the other post i went to take his photo and he ran at me, i ran backwards and got this photo, he then sat there and posed for some more photos!!

For the Journaling spot i used Plain Janes from Creative Chaos (in Kraft) which can be found HERE seriously a pack of 10 for $1.50 USD can NOT complain at that!!

So what i actually did this weekend ...

This was for the summer nights challenge
All new Bo Bunny such a great new line - LOVE IT and a Jilly Bean Journaling spot and a little hambly overlay.

The next one is for Julies challenge - we go together, the colour is a bit wonky but whatever,

Sassafrass pps, bazzill dots, Thickers and random buttons and velvet ric rac

Then for Melissas Challenge - fashion, i thought i'd document Hamish's wardrobe, and YES he has more stylish clothes than me :(

I used the new MME, some ribbon from Eileen (Thanks!!) Doodlebug letters and a couple of journaling spots form Creative Chaos, the memories recorded is here (6 jotter sheets in the pack) and the star label is here - i personally LOVE the different labels in this pack ive used another one further down!!

Next up a LO from us at the falls after officially landing in Canada as permanent residents - yip still love saying that, im a permanent resident, i have my PR!!

more new Bo-Bunny, thickers, doodlebug, a Jotter sheet from Creative Chaos - here and a little bazzill tulle with some Maya Road pins!

This was for Nitas Challenge, to use Polka Dots, i sure had a lot of pp to chose from

this has a LOT of 3 bugs pps, and i hand cut all the flowers, i know so unlike me, it take about 5 hours though!! There is also a couple of Jilly Beans journaling spots and from creative chaos an arrow label from the above pack found here and the Memories ticket also from Creative Chaos here

Finally this is a LO i made for Creative Chaos and didnt think i could share but i could have oops. I used my free bo-bunny pp from Treasured Memories - Thanks Chantel!! and some Creative Chaos jouanling spots ...

The circle is a not so plain jane colourful here is a link to the black ones, if you want colour send Jenn a message and im sure she will get them to you :)

The "Date" jouanling spot is here

Again with the checklist i cant seem to see it in the shop but again message Jenn and she'll get them to you :)

This is actually a photo of us in the boarder crossing car park our first photo as official Canadian Permanent Residents - eeeeeeeeeee

Is it just me or are my eyes CRAZY blue in that last LO? i swear i didnt photo shop it!

ok thats it ... but i dont think i did too badly??

Still no photos!!

2009-08-14T17:33:00.002-07:00

Well I guess I didn’t get round to doing those photos did I …

Anyways …

Lots going on right now, its been my last week at work, although im going to be doing some hours next week.

Onto Scrapping

Creative Chaos make the most awesome journaling spots, the etsy store is HERE boysmamaXtwo

I got a great package of goodies to play with and ive done a couple of LO’s but I cant share just yet! These tags are awesome seriously great AND they come so nicely packaged, I totally recommend you get some!!

BUT today is Friday which means Creative Chaos has their Friday free for all go check it out leave a comment and win some cool colored labels, feel free to share them with me if you win because I LOVE them, im totally ordering some :)

Then over at Dotty Diva’s You have until August 20!! To get your take on Ad #1 in. There is a prize for people in the UK but from challenge two onwards the prizes are across the world.

Great Ad and the submissions so far have been awesome!!!

Finally ….

It’s the Scrapbook Star online crop this weekend!!

the theme is Grease and I LOVE IT love the challenges the DT have come up with.

My challenge is to use a bad photo… here is mine

http://www.scrapbookstar.ca/gallery/albums/userpics/13484/normal_ran.jpg

ok sorry for the life of me i cant get the photo to show in the post

I went to take his photo and he started running towards me, so I screamed and ran back which resulted in the blurry photo. But then he decided to pose for some photos for me :)

Most products are from the Scrapbook Star August Kit. I also added a Creative Chaos journaling spot and the doodle bug letters :)

Ok so other than work Im planning on scrapping most of the weekend!!! Lets see what I have to show for myself by Sunday!!

Missed Me??

2009-08-09T20:41:00.002-07:00

WOW it seems like forever since I have blogged and so much has happened.

We had Barrys mam and dad over from Scotland for two weeks, we managed to get to Banff, Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, the 1A, Icefields Parkway, Yoho National Park (natural bridge, Emerald lake, Takakkaw Falls), Radium hot springs, Big Rock, Drumheller, Dinosaur museam and Edmonton. ... Think that was it :)

They were due to leave two Wednesdays ago but their flight was delayed until Thursday, bit of a mess around but they managed to get home in the end.

Wednesday (two weeks ago) we also got the letter saying our Permanent Residency was approved!!!! The issue then was to travel to Buffalo and get our passports the same day or post them and the turn around time is 5-6 weeks ....

SO we had to arrange a wee trip to Buffalo. Last Wednesday we caught the 6.10 to Toronto, spend the day downtown with Miss Amanda (it was great to meet you) then picked up the car and headed out to Mississauga. We ate at the Spaghetti factory and Bar has not stopped going on about his meat balls!!!

Then on Thursday we headed out to Buffalo at 4.30. We actually got there at 6.00 we already had our US visas from our last trip to Montana. We quickly grabbed a Timmie's and headed up to the queue. We managed to be 1st which was a great thing because they saw us in order and by the time they opened (8am) the line was HUGE). We handed everything over and were given a slip that said to come back between 1.30 - 3.00, they also told us that they were understaffed.

HOWEVER, they gave us our forms and passports back at 10.15am - way quicker than we expected. All that was left was to officially "land" in Canada. We headed up to Peace River to cross the boarder. We had heard that people had been asked a heap of questions when landing so we were kinda nervous about what they were going to ask us. BUT we got the most awesome guards who were friendly and funny and really nice, which makes the situation so much easier. They seemed really happy that we were so excited to get our PR status! Then we had to clear customs .. which kinda went like

guard - anything to declare?
us - nope
guard - anything to follow? today is the only day its free after that you will be charged tax...
us - nothing
guard - welcome to Canada!

took us about 20 minutes inside then another 20 minutes outside of us screaming with joy!!

Since we finished so early we headed to Niagara falls (sorry cooper ;) and i couldn't find any hats i looked everywhere) got some lunch and walked down to the falls, it was hot and i was tired so we headed back to the hotel. Just before Hamilton we both hit a low we were so so so tired. we stopped at MacDonald's for $1 drink days (for non Canadians, all McD drinks are $1 over summer) i swear that stuff has some sort of drug in it, after a few sips we were both wide awake and ready to hit the road again, oh and my hyperness came back!!

Friday i had an interview over the phone in the morning and then we had to head back to downtown to Toronto to put the car back. The we grabbed some lunch and met up with Michelle (also great to meet you too)

Afterwards we walked down to the sculpture i loved and got some pictures, then headed to the airport and got the 22.45 flight home.

We got back home at 2.00am and we phoned the UK and finally got to bed about 3.45.

Next morning we decided to head up to Edmonton for the night, we had a free night which had to be used and Treasured Memories were holding a special day for friends and family.

So after my acupuncture we headed up the road.

Today we just went to TM and i got way too much yummy stuff!!! and tomorrow its back to work ...

oh well i guess that will be me back down with a bump!!

i have a heap of photos but im too lazy to make them smaller to post them ... will be back soon with photos to share :)

Were Back

2009-07-26T21:11:00.002-07:00

We nipped up to Edmonton for the weekend.

We hit the farmers market, White Ave and the Edmonton Food Festival

so Yummy, Yummy peaches and cherries from the market, then all yummy food especially the cheesecake at the festival!!

Got home and Bar made his apricot chicken with garlic roast tatties these are THE BEST FOOD IN THE WORLD EVER (with Mr Alans mash in a close second place)

(dont tell Bar but i cant stop nipping down stairs for things and eating more left overs :o

Hope everyone else had a great weekend!!

Sketch Friday

2009-07-23T22:33:00.002-07:00

Today my sketch went live over at Scrapbook Star ...

Here is my LO the first one with photos from this past weekend!

Post your take on the sketch over at SS before next friday and you will get starbucks which can be used to buy lottery tickets to win cool scrappy prizes!!

Man Im Tired

2009-07-22T13:40:00.002-07:00

We are back from our adverturing to Lake Louise, Banff and the Bad Lands, ill try and upload some photos later ...

Just wanted to share the fact that the first ad challenge is up over at Dotty Divas
HERE

This is the ad for inspiration …
Here is my take

I may have to explain my inspiration but the ad made me think of being surrounded by love and i kept the brown and pink from the ad in my LO too ... the swirls are obvious where they come from ;)

The DT came up with awesome LO’s go check it out!!!

ALSO there is an awesome prize this month!!

Details of the sponsor here:

http://dottydivas.blogspot.com/2009/07/lets-meet-our-first-sponsor.html

and the prize is …

Here … KIT G … http://www.storage4crafts.com/shopx/product.php?productid=685&cat=131&page=1

How cool is that!!

Cant wait to see what everyone comes up with :D

Happy Birthday Miss Lou

2009-07-16T05:10:00.000-07:00

Hey Louise i hope you have the most fantastic birthday and the most awesome year ahead .... and lots of cake :D

xxx

Woot woot

2009-07-15T13:44:00.002-07:00

Just wanted to say a huge Congrats to my super awesome friend Lou ;)

Her LO was chosen as the winner of the twisted sketches RAK.

Final Countown

2009-07-15T11:12:00.001-07:00

... and some good news

my in laws will be here in about 6 hours ....

Good news is ...

Im so so very excited to join the Creative Chaos Crew!!

Jenn makes the most amazing tickets and journaling spots!!

The blog is here: http://creative-chaos.typepad.com/

And the Etsy Shop is here: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5367046&ga_search_query=boysmamaxtwo&ga_search_type=seller_usernames

Top Tips

2009-07-14T20:43:00.003-07:00

Zoe sent me these in an e-mail but im horrible at sending on e-mails but i wanted to share these :)

Delia's Way

Stuff a miniature marshmallow in the bottom of a sugar cone to prevent ice-cream drips.

The Real Woman's Way

Just suck the ice cream out of the bottom of the cone, for God's sake. You are probably lying on the couch with your feet up eating it anyway.

Delia's Way

To keep potatoes from budding, place an apple in the bag with the potatoes.

The Real Woman's Way

Buy Smash and keep it in the cupboard for up to a year.

Delia's Way

When a cake recipe calls for flouring the baking tin, use a bit of the dry cake mix instead and there won't be any white mess on the outside of the cake.

The Real Woman's Way

Tescos' sell cakes. They even do decorated versions.

Delia's Way

If you accidentally over-salt a dish while it's still cooking, drop in a potato slice.

The Real Woman's Way

If you over salt a dish while you are cooking, that's tough. Please recite with me the Real Woman's motto: 'I made it and you will eat it and I don't care how bad it tastes.'

Delia's Way

Wrap celery in aluminium foil when putting in the refrigerator and it will keep for weeks

The Real Woman's Way

It could keep forever. Who eats it?

Delia's Way

Cure for headaches: Take a lime, cut it in half and rub it on your forehead. The throbbing will go away.

The Real Woman's Way

Cure for headaches: Take a lime, cut it in half and drop it in 8 ounces of vodka. Drink the vodka. You might still have the headache, but you wont care!

Delia's Way

If you have a problem opening jars, try using latex dishwashing gloves. They give a non-slip grip that makes opening jars easy.

The Real Woman's Way

Why do I have a man?

Finally the most important tip Delia's Way

Freeze leftover wine into ice cubes for future use in casseroles

The Real Woman's Way

left over wine???? Helllloooo!!

Tee hee hee i liked them anyways :)

In other news the spamster got his hair cut today but they have done something funny to his face, so he wont let me take a picture and share it because he is too ashamed :( he is also cold so he is sporting his cashmere argyle jumper - yip he has better clothes than me!!

Super Excited

2009-07-12T08:28:00.000-07:00

Im so so so excited, I have been chosen to be a Dotty Designer!!!!

Its a new challenge blog, each month there will be a new ad provided for inspiration!

I hope you guys play along, im so excited :)

tada

2009-07-09T20:38:00.003-07:00

Its finally friday and its finally summer hours at work, i only have to work three hours tomorrow before i get to go home and i have to say that that feels GREAT!!!!

Anyways since its Friday it time for my sketch over at scrapbook star.

Here is my Sketch

And my Layout!

Amazing

2009-07-08T13:29:00.003-07:00

some people are just amazing

I am very proud and privileged to call Stephanie my friend.

I have to say unfortunately i don't know her that well but she has this most amazing character and spirit. i LOVE it.

If you check out her blog you will see that her LOs are awesome and there is something powerful about them that you cant help but feel the emotion, they make you smile, they make you believe, they give you hope.

The message she left for me the other day was perfect for me, it made me LOL and made me realise i need to chill out.

Here latest post really touched me. She is someone who is such a wonderful character and person i feel blessed to know her and i wish her all the happiness in the world!!

Twisted

2009-07-08T13:05:00.002-07:00

Miss Anam asked me to be the guest designer this week over at twisted sketches

and how could i say no given how much i LOVE her sketches!!!

The twist this week was fabric ... i covered my background cardstock with suede fabric, had it for ages just because i thought it was so pretty!!

Whilst watching the Stone of Destiny it is said of one of the girls that she is just a simple highlander .... i feel exactly that way about myself, i need a wide open space, some water, my boys and im good to go i also did this one of red rock canyon, using brown fake leather and cosmo cricket :)

Go check out her sketches becuase i swear they will inspire you!!

Cowboy Up

2009-07-07T19:45:00.003-07:00

Finally photos from the weekend!!!!

YaHoooooooooooo

Barry and our breakfast ...Bar and his favourite burger shack ....Bar showing off his candy floss tongue...

My Tornado Potato

oh and yes it was THAT good!!!!

One of the rides ...At the start of the Rodeo they burn the Calgary Stampede logo into the ground ...Then the cowboys come out for the national anthemand here is a bareback rider

All in all a great day ... even if there are too may photos of Barry ;)