A Colourful Life

Always. Sometimes. Never

I always:

worry about my kids.
wonder what dying would be like.
go to the gym before going to work.
set my alarm earlier than I need to.
daydream when I am driving (bad habit).
match my lipstick to my shirt color.
say a prayer before bed.
order a Starbucks Grande Dark.
ignore phone calls when the caller ID says private caller.
miss my Dad.

I sometimes:

do laundry at 3 AM when I can't sleep.
fall asleep sitting up.
forget to bring a lunch that I slaved over making the night before.
forget to phone my Mom and feel bad that I did.
pretend I don't see someone who I don't want to talk to.
cancel my dentist appt for no good reason other than I don't wanna go.
forget to put gas in the car and drive home running on empty.

I never:

wake up later than 8 AM even on weekends.
wear eyeshadow.
eat bread if it isn't toasted.
care too much about the latest gizmo....don't own an Iphone, don't want one.
want to go anywhere without my cell.
eat any of the round, gelatiny balls in bubble tea.
eat cereal.

Inspired by Elise.

The Wedding Invitation

Several posts back, I blogged about getting together with my niece and sister as well as some other members of the family to create Taren's (my niece) wedding invites.  You can see the original post here.  Then I promised that I would post the finished product.  Then I didn't.  So then came the emails asking why I haven't yet and then a good friend (Jeannie!) actually asked me in person when I saw her...."where are the pics of the invites????"  So Jeannie and everyone else who has asked, here are the pics as promised....a little bit late, but here nonetheless....

 

Taren wanted something simple and elegant and wanted an all white theme. 

 

The outside flap opened up to reveal a simple statement....."they lived happily ever after."  I actually joked around the day we were making these invitations and said that some of the invites should read, " and they lived in a shoe!"....just for fun -- and to see who was paying attention!  Of course, that suggestion was vetoed by the bride to be and of course, I was just joking!!

When fully opened the invite looked like this.

 

All the pertinent info regarding times, locations, reception, etc were printed on separate cards and tucked into the pocket.  We made 200 of these babies!

So there you go guys......promise delivered!  Sorry for the delay.  The wedding is in 6 days, and I will post pics of the long awaited event.  I have had 2 nephews get married, but this is the first neice of mine getting married, so it will be specially poignant for us.  There's just something about a girl in our family....so much more emotion attached to the girls and whatever they do.  Needless to say, I will be wearing super-duper waterproof mascara and be packing a whole payload of tissues in my pocket!

Monday, Monday.

Today is Monday, July 13 and I didn't have to go to work!!  Yeah!  So nice to have a day off to just stay home and do whatever I want....so what did I do??  Well first of all I baked cookies...so yummy.

 

These cookies were so good piping hot out of the oven.  Here is the recipe.

White & Milk Chocolate Nut Cookies

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts
• 1 cup coarsely chopped white chocolate (or 1/2 white and 1/2 milk chocolate)
   
    Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla and almond extracts. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; gradually stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in the macadamia nuts and white chocolate. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
2. Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown

After baking (and eating!) cookies I went down to my studio to play with my stamps.  I ended up making these and I love the way they turned out!

 

This is a redo of a card I made last year -- you can see the original card here.  I have always loved this layout and I thought why not make it again, but with different paper and colours.  Here is a close up.

 
I made several of this card in preparation for upcoming craft fairs and to sell at the store I work at. 

Yesterday, I received some beautiful flowers from my niece Taren as a thank you for helping her out with her wedding invitations.  

  

Her wedding is 2 weeks away, and we are getting excited as we wait for her big day!  I do love weddings and my family knows how to throw some pretty awesome weddings -- if you are a reader of my blog, you will know what I mean.  We love to dance the night away.  I'll be sure to post pics of her big day.

Happy Monday, everyone!

A Little Bit of Summer in my Kitchen.

I was at Home Depot last week to look at racking for my craft room and was distracted at all the wonderful flowers in the garden section.  I never even got to the racking....I just walked around and looked at all the beautiful flowers.  I ended up buying this:

 

Notice that it is green, my fave colour.  And I filled it with these:

 

I love my set of African violets.  The guy working in the garden section told me to be careful not to get the leaves wet as they will turn brown.  I obviously am not too good at this cause I can already see one leaf starting to turn brown.  I have to pay more attention when I water them next time.  I look at my flowers everyday when I am doing the dishes!   The racking??  Never did get to them.  I'll have to go back and buy it next time -- and stay away from the garden section!

The new A Muse classes are now up on display at the store I work at.  There will be 2 classes using these stamps and you can see the images here.

Below is a card I made using a Stampin' Up hostess set called the More the Merrier.  

  

This card features some of the new colours unveiled for this year, here is a closer look.

 

For those who have been asking about my Stampin' Up card kits, you can see the info on the set here.

Have a good weekend everyone.  Enjoy the sunshine!

Busy days.

It's been quite a couple of weeks.  Starting off, of course with Jordan's Dry Grad and Alyssa's birthday parties then continuing on with Canada Day celebrations at home and at work.  This was followed by my High School Reunion -- what a fun time we had.  It was wonderful to see my high school friends and I have to say....we all have aged beautifully.  I can honestly say that everyone looked awesome!  Here we are at the Arbutus Club during our reunion dinner.

 

It seemed like just yesterday when we were all together in school and now we are married, have families and our kids are graduating from High School!  It was great to reconnect and I know that all these friends of mine will continue to stay friends and some of us have already made plans to meet again.  So cool.  There is nothing like friendship and the ones that last and endure are the ones that are the most special.

I have been asked by some of my subscribers when I will be featuring another Stampin' Up stamp kit and the answer is NOW!  I will be updating my kit blog in the next couple of days.  If you want to be included in the email announcing the next kit, please drop me an email with your contact info (email please) and I will include you in my email blast.  In the meantime, here is one of the cards in my next kit.  It features a new hostess set from the new catalogue called "The More, the Merrier".

  

 

This card uses the new Rich Razzleberry ink and cardstock introduced by Stampin' Up this month.  The rest of the kit will also include more of the new colours!  Again, if you want to be notified of the kit release, drop me an email.

 

Happy Canada Day!

Canadian and proud of it!