On Friends...

The past month (in which I didn't blog at all... oops! lol) was spent having fabulous times with my best friend in the whole, wide world... my sister, Jen. On September 6th she left for her husband's military posting in Cold Lake, Alberta... which, in my opinion, is WAY too far away from Comox. I will miss her terribly, and won't even begin to go into how much she means to me, as I will cry and it will get too sappy around here! lol

Instead, I will tell you about the fabulous month we had together, along with some of our other best friends. Jen and I started the month in Cold Lake, along with Nate and Dale, for their house hunting trip. And though Cold Lake is not a fabulous place to visit, we managed to enjoy making fun of weird hairdo's at restaurants, visiting the beach, having a blast at a kids playground (it's so great to have a baby to take as an excuse to use play equipment!) and a chat-filled 3 hour ride back to Edmonton.

When we arrived back from Cold Lake, our Dad had just arrived in Comox for a visit! Spending time with my sister and my Dad together is always a treat (and, luckily in a month I get to do the same with my Mom and sister! Yay!! :D), and we had some good chats and made good memories. We also put on a joint birthday party for Nate and our friend Laurel's son, G, who are a few months apart. It was cowboy themed, and we dressed the boys up in Cowboy hats and bandanas. Too cute! It was fun getting to plan everything and make invitations with Jen and Laurel.

I also fit in as much time as I could just hanging with Nate and Jen. Doing everyday, little things... like putting Nate to bed, eating lunch together, bringing Jen coffee, sitting and going over photos, teaching Nate new games and things to say/do, and basically just enjoying my family. We even got tattoos to go along with an inside joke we have and one of our songs. They are memories I will never forget :)

The last week that Jen was here was spent with our friends... we had a few different goodbye parties, which were a blast! It really made me realize what a great group of friends that I have made here. Jen and I have never really had the same group of friends to hang out with, so the past years with all of our scrapbook buddies (especially the past year with Rae-Lynn and Laurel) has just been amazing. The four of us have a blast together just chilling, talking about anything (and I mean ANYTHING! lol) and poking fun at eachother. I'm sure Laurel, Rae-Lynn and I will continue to be close (and, actually, i look forward to getting much closer to Laurel in particular, as I don't know her near as well as I would like) now that Jen is gone... but I feel it just won't be the same without Jen. We'll have to take turns now being confused ;)

So, before I keep rambling on and on... here's to my friends! Jen, Laurel and Rae-Lynn... I love you all, and am so glad that we all came together over the past year. I can't wait until Christmas when we can all be together again! *hugs*

<3 Gillian

P.S. Now that my sister is gone, i have WAY more free time, so i'll be getting back to posting photos and my scrapbook layouts here again. So check back ;)

Off on a House Hunting Trip

That's right! I'm off to Cold Lake, Alberta, to help my sister buy her new house. Her new house that is FAR too far away from me.... the new house that will have a little Nate in it every day, but no visits from Auntie Gill. :( It makes me quite sad, but at the same time, I'm excited to be a part of the HHT, because then at least I get to SEE the new house, and I will know where my sister will be living. Plus it means a week FULL of Nate time, which is just fabulous :) It also means time away from Brandon.. which isn't much fun, but I'll be bringing my laptop, and there will be internet. So we may get a little WoW time in, in the evenings ;) hehe

So, i've totally been slacking on my scrapbooking and my photo taking lately... and, obviously, my blogging! lol Stuff is just hectic trying to soak up every moment of my sisters last month here. I'm hoping while I'm away to get my photos (especially 365 shots) organized on my computer. Then when I get home I'll print them out and start scrapping lots again :)

I have gotten a few layouts done though, thanks to Lotus Paperie and the weekly challenges there! It's a good thing the kits are fabulous since that's all i've scrapped with lately! hehe You can check out this weeks challenge over there. It's an interesting sketch, sort of tricky, but it got me thinking and inspired!

Anyways, I will leave you with some of my fave photos from the past little while (ie. 3 months) that I JUST got on my computer now! lol

Adorable Nate during lunch with his Auntie!

I actually went for a 7km hike! I know! It's hard to believe! lol This was one of the shots I got while there.

Here are Rae-Lynn and I in our sexy traffic shirts while working in Merritt! Good times :)

Hope likes to take over Jack's bed when he's not in it. Too cute!

Doesn't little Jack look thrilled to be wearing his Roots camping sweatshirt? lol Trust me, he appreciates it on cold nights!

Happy Friday everyone!
<3 Gillian

She's going to do it!

I know I've been MIA for awhile... i've been busy, and relishing my time with my little nephew and my best friend. I also went a bit crazy at Merritt Mountain Music Festival for a week. That was good times too, and i'll update with pics next week. But i just wanted to share in my joy that my sister shared with me today.

She's going to get our 'matching' tattoos done with me before she leaves!! :D :D :D I'm so excited! I was going to get a tattoo for her before she moved even if she didn't, but I really wanted her to get one to go with mine. And she told me today, that as my 'goodbye present' she's going to get it done. They won't be identical tattoos, more like two pieces to the puzzle that is one of our little inside jokes. I'll explain the story when I have pics to post next month after the tats. WOOHOO!!

Now to finish designing and get prepped for the pain :D

<3 Gillian

P.S. Go check out the latest challenge at Lotus Paperie, it's a good one, and seems to be the only thing i have time to scrapbook for lately!

It's that time again!

Time to head out camping that is! This time we're going with the usual crew (Brandon's family and friends) down to a campsite in Nanaimo. I guess it's quite nice, and is on a great river that you can kayak and swim in. My sister and nephew are STILL not home, so I'll be bringing both our little chichuahua and the big beast, Turner. His sore is healing up quite nice, but it's still a large scab that needs to stay dry. So no swimming for the poor boy :( I'll try to make up for it in lots of walking and ball throwing though.

A week away from home means a week away from my scrap supplies... and it already seems like I don't get enough time for that anymore! I've been mostly working on projects for work and such. I need to get back to some good old scrapping of Nate photos! hehe He'll be back hopefully this weekend, so there should be lots of photo ops.

Don't forget to check out Lotus Paperie on Friday for the next challenge! It's an interesting one. Sorry for the photoless post, but after last time's pic, you're probably all thankful ;) hehe

Happy Wednesday!
<3 Gillian

Taking care of Turner

Well, this week has definitely taken a turn for the not-as-much-fun. I would say worse.. but it's not really THAT bad... just unpleasant. To start with my allergies are UBER bad at the moment! I'm one of those people who's allergic to the whole world... grass, trees, flowers, mold, dust, fur, feathers... and the list goes on. Normally I take one 24-hour allergy pill every day and I'm pretty much good to go. Not this week! I'm a sniffly, blubbery, watery-eyed mess! lol But I've got nothing on my poor puppy (okay, he's not MINE, he's my sisters, but I've been taking care of him for the last month) Turner. I discovered yesterday that he had a weird crusty spot on his cheek that was all bloody. I took him to the vet and turns out it's a 'Hot Spot', otherwise known as moist eczema. They had to shave half his face to allow the wound to get air and dry out. It looks SUPER SUPER nasty though :S And painful too. The poor guy is just not himself, he only chased the ball 3 times today.. which for anyone who knows Turner, knows that's just crazy. :(


There's a new challenge up over at Lotus Paperie (okay, it's from Friday, i just didn't tell you until now) and it's a pretty unique little inspiration piece. You should all go check it out!

In my final bit of news, Rae-Lynn is home!! YAY! And next week my sister and Nate will be home! All my favourite people back in the same town as me. Life is good! :)

Oh, except for the part where I get to clean an oozing wound off of a giant dog twice a day. :P

Happy Tuesday,
<3 Gillian

Wow...

how time flies! I feel like i just blogged yesterday and got back from my camping trip... but that was WEEKS ago! I'm a bad, bad, bad blogger! But the good news is that now at least once a week I'll have a great new challenge layout to share with you from Lotus Paperie, so that will give me an excuse to blog ;) Speaking of that challenge layout.... you can check out the current challenge (from last Friday) over at the Lotus Paperie Blog. It's a pretty good little sketch! Here's what I came up with from it:

There will be a new challenge up over there on Friday, so don't miss it! In other online scrapbooking news.... I was asked to step down from the Scrap n' Art design team.... apparently I wasn't keeping up with their insane amounts of work over there. And I was also told that my graphic design work wasn't right for what they were looking for in the eZine. I'm quite proud of my graphic design work and think it was much more professional and quality than what they were doing, but at any rate we weren't meshing. I'll leave my comments at that as I don't want to get rude :P

So that means that lately i've been able to scrap for just me, which is fun! I've noticed that my style has really become a bit plain lately... but i'm okay with that. I like it, even if each layout is pretty similar. I'll work on stepping out of the box later ;)

My life is still pretty boring! My sister and nephew are away visiting family, so I've been chilling with my man and trying to keep up my exercise program. I'm getting a bit burnt out with it though, so if you have any tips on keeping motivation high, let me know! lol I'll leave you with a few layouts I've done recently of my little man. I definitely have WAY too many pages with this guy on them! hehe





Happy Wednesday!
<3 Gillian

Fabulous Weekend!

I've been meaning to post all week about my fabulous weekend of camping, but life is busy when you're not on the beach just chilling :) So, it is Thursday, and a few days late, but it's here none the less for you few people who keep checking back!

So, last Thursday Brandon and I left to go to Quadra Island to camp with the family and friends for the long weekend. We go every year with Brandon's parents and a few of their family friends, and it's always a good time. This year was no exception!! The weather was just absolutely GORGEOUS the whole time, and everyone left with tans (and sunburns, unfortunately).


Also, Jen, Nate and Turner came up for the day on Friday, which was great. We went for a VERY long walk along the beach and through the woods and spent time on the beach. Nate had his first little dip in the ocean too, which was fun :)


Then that night Rae-Lynn, Paul, Logan and Tikka came to stay for the rest of the weekend. That made for some fabulous nights around the campfire, and some great days in the sun. And don't forget lots of napping.... there should always be napping when you're on vacation :)


There is not much other news going on right now, especially of the scrappy variety. I've done some great layouts, but have yet to take photos of them. That is my job for this weekend or next week on my days off. To post all my work from the past month and get caught up on all my EZine and work projects. So wish me luck ;)

Tonight i'm off to scrap at the military base with a few friends and hope to get some of my ABC's of Me pages done. Though I should probably work on my mini album for work... oh the great dilemmas of my life! lol

Happy Thursday everyone!
<3 href="http://www.scrapnart.com/">Scrap n' Art and subscribe before June 7th to be entered into the big contest!
P.P.S. There will be a great new challenge up tomorrow at Lotus Paperie, so check that out too!

He's Crawling!!

Yay!! I feel like a proud Momma, only I'm not the mom, but my little nephew, Nate, is crawling! His mom saw him do it a little bit on Monday night, and told me to get him to try yesterday at lunch. So I plopped him down on his belly and sat a few feet away from him. He crawled right on up into my arms! It was so exciting :D He kept on crawling to me every time I would put him on the floor away from me. He sure does love his Auntie Gill ;) At this point he has yet to crawl to anyone else, not even his mom, so I feel pretty special! hehe

Didn't get much scrapping time this past week, unfortunately. Spent time with my sister and Nate, worked, and prepped and taught a class at Scrapbook Central. I did have a chance as part of my class to make my sister a little Mother's Day mini album, since it was her first year as a Mom. She loved it, which was great :) I didn't get to spend Mother's Day with my mom, as she lives across the country, and it felt pretty sad this year. I would have loved to see her and spoil her for the day. She seemed quite down on Mother's Day too, so I sent her flowers Monday morning to cheer her up. Hope it worked :)

I feel like my life has become quite mundane and boring! Which is actually okay by me, but not very exciting to blog about! lol The most exciting thing that happened this week was a trip to the vets with all THREE of my animals. Now THAT was a challenge! Rounding up both cats and the dog and dragging them in to the vets took much longer than I thought. They all did well though, except for the shedding all over me in fear. I swear I could have made a new cat out of the hair that was deposited on my shirt! lol And then to top off the excursion, Shady pooped in his carrier on the way home. Now that was a fun smell to be trapped in my little car with. :P

Anyways, tomorrow I am off to Quadra Island for our yearly May camping trip. It marks the beginning of the summer camping season, and should be pretty nice this year. Hopefully I'll take lots of pictures to make up for this post!

Enjoy your weekend everyone!
<3 Gillian

Good news, bad news, and cat news!

Well, as the title suggests, there is good news, bad news and cat news. I will start with the good. I was lucky enough to be chosen as a design team member over at Lotus Paperie!!! I am SUPER SUPER thrilled about this :D I LOVE Vanessa's kits, and am also a huge fan of the challenges over there. Love that I get to do them on a weekly basis now with fabulous new kit material. WOOHOO!! If you've never checked out the site, you should definitely take a gander. My fabulous bloggy buddy Jessi made the team as well. YAY!!

Now onto the bad news... Found out today that my sister has been posted to Cold Lake, Alberta. I am quite depressed. I was REALLY hoping she would be posted to Washington so I could be near her and my nephew. For those who don't know me super well, my sister is my absolute best friend in the whole, wide world. There is no one like her, and there is nothing like our relationship. I can't even describe it. I just love her... a lot. And I was so enjoying being near her and hanging out every day. Now I will MAYBE see her 2-3 times a year, IF I'm lucky. It sucks. A lot... i think I will leave it at that, before I cry.

I did this layout quickly when I got home tonight to help get my emotions from the day onto paper. I don't only scrap happy things. I like to scrap when it hurts too... maybe 20 years from now I will look back and wonder why I was so upset, because it all turned out okay. Who knows?



As a side note... I am very very grateful that I have made some amazing friends around here who will, no doubt, help me through the tough times ahead when my sister leaves. Rae-Lynn is one of them. I miss her... Saturday was too long ago. So Rae-Lynn, we must plan our scrappy day for next week :)

And, onto the cat news. We have turned our one cat Shady into an outdoor cat. He seems quite unhappy being cooped up inside, so for better or worse, he is now allowed to roam free. Cross your fingers that he fares well! My other cat Hope is too silly and lazy to be an outdoor cat, but she has started to enjoy time in the yard on her leash. Here she is just chilling in the grass. This photo makes me smile :)


Well, off to bed! Happy Wednesday all!
<3 Gillian

Are you with us?

Super cool project going on over at Shimelle.com! I'm going to try it :)

I've lost my mojo!

Well, i think it's official, i've lost my scrap mojo :( I just can't seem to pull off any real great layouts lately, which sucks cause I have tons of work to do for the store and the ezine. I went to an all day scrap yesterday and I just wasn't feeling it. I only got 4 layouts done and I wasn't super pleased with any of them. Oh well, I'll give it another go tomorrow at Rae-Lynn's place and hope for the best!

Speaking of Rae-Lynn, we've talked and hung out a lot this week! Before the scrap weekend I wasn't even sure whether she really liked me, but I feel like we totally clicked, which is awesome! I'll be so happy to have another fabulous friend around for after my sister leaves. Not sure anything will completely replace my sister leaving, but Rae-Lynn and I are blood sisters, so you never know ;) hehe Anyways, she blogs too, and has an adorable son, so check her out here. Here is Jen being le jealous of Rae-Lynn and I at the Support Our Troops concert, which by the way, was a good time :)

In other news, I totally gimped up my toe this week! I knocked a picture frame off the wall at my sister's place and the corner landed right on my toe. I thought that it was going to be disconnected when I took my sock off to look, it hurt that bad! lol This was on Wednesday, it's now Sunday, and I still have to limp so that it doesn't completely hurt. Booooo!!

Also worked a few days this week at the Scrapbook store and taught a mini album to a 12 year old birthday party. It was a busy week, but the extra money helps, and how bad can it really be when you work at scrap store? Speaking of which, we got LOADS of new stuff in this week, so if you're local, you should stop by. Except for you, Laurel, you can't visit me there until July ;)

I will leave you with a few layouts from the past week or so, and then I'm off to update all my 365 photos at my Flickr (username is spunk33grl if you want to check them out). Happy Sunday all!


<3 Gillian

For my BFF ;)

Well, I am back!! Due to some not-so-gentle persuasion from my new buddy Rae-Lynn, I have decided to blog and update everyone on my (boringish) life. I've been pretty busy the past month! I've started working quite a bit at the Scrapbook store and also spending lots of time prepping for classes at the store. I taught my first class which went fairly well and have both a cards class and a mothers day acrylic album in the works for next month :) I took a significant break from scrapping anything for myself for awhile, due to working on store stuff too much, but went to a weekend long crop hosted by one of my friends and got a lot done. I will take pics of those on Friday, if it's sunny and get them posted :)

In other fabulous scrappy news, I found out that I'M BEING PUBLISHED!!!! WOOHOO!! I will have a layout featured in Becky's Sketch of the August issue of Creating Keepsakes. I'm SO excited about this! :) I don't plan on submitting for magazines a lot, since I want to just scrap for me, but I am very happy about being published once, just to say I did it. I also have a fabulous (if I do say so myself... which I don't normally about my own work, but I particularly loved this one) layout under consideration with Canadian Scrapbooker, so keep your fingers crossed for that one. If I don't hear back from them I will post it here for you guys, because I'm super proud of it.
One last scrappy tidbit before I move on... the premiere issue of Scrap n' Art came out today! It's pretty cool, so you should definitely all check it out if you haven't already :) Loads of great layouts and projects in there, as well as some fun tips, techniques and interviews.

So what else have I been spending my time doing? Mostly just chilling with my nephew :D He is way too adorable and my sister and I have too much fun playing with him and laughing, so I spend LOTS of time at their place. I'm sure my boyfriend gets jealous, that's how much time I spend there! lol That adorable picture of him is from yesterday, and was my 365 photo for the day. He was playing with my sunglasses and looks WAY too cute. I could probably share adorable photos of him with you all day long, but I don't want to seem repetitive (or make Rae-Lynn jealous of how cute he is), so i'll just leave it at that!
I've been keeping up on my 365 challenge, though i'll admit, many of my photos are pretty uninspired lately. I'm hoping to get some mojo back now that its spring! Here are a few of my favourites from the past month to finish things up:




Happy Tuesday!
<3 Gillian
P.S. For you local scrappers, i'm working at Scrapbook Central tomorrow, so come visit!!

I am le tired...

So wow... I am the worst blogger ever! lol I can't wait until I'm done working so much, it stresses me to no end AND leaves me with less time to blog/scrap/generally browse the net. Hopefully after next week i'll be back to working just half time again *crosses fingers* Not sure how all you full time workers do it!! *bows down to you all*

Anyways, the voting is on now over at Coordinates Collections for the final round... and I have so few votes! lol It's seriously depressing. I don't feel like my work is any worse than the other two girls, but i have like 4 votes to each of their 15. I suck! lol And it's hurting my scrappy ego, that's for sure. So if you're a member over there, head on over and vote for me ;) hehe

Okay, I must go, again. I'm sorry that I suck at blogging.... but i generally suck at everything right about now! Except for spending time with my sis and nephew, i'm an EXPERT at that right now :)

Happy Friday!!!
<3 Gillian

P.S. Just in case you were worried, I have kept up with my 365 photos... just need to print them/upload them/organize them :)

WOOHOO!

I made it to the final round in the Scrapping With The Stars contest over at Coordinates Collections! That means I will win a prize, which is SWEET! Free stuff makes me giddy with excitement :D I don't think by any means that i'll win this round, there is for sure one other contestant who is WAY better than me, LOVE her work, and would totally think she deserves to win. But i'm thrilled to be this far :)

Here are my two layouts that got me into this round. THey were inspired by Tim Holtz and Jen Dubbs (0ne of the CC DT members).

Now I have to design layouts inspired by Kimberley Madrid (another DT member over there) and Cathy Zielske. I had never even heard of Cathy before :S So i need to research! Already finished my Kimberly layout tonight at scrapbooking though :)

So, if you live in my area, and are interested in taking one of my classes at the scrap store where I work, here's the details! I'm super excited about it, even though i'm not 100% pleased with my sample layouts.

Also, the store (Scrapbook Central) is having it's grand opening on Saturday, and i'll be doing card demos and working all day. So stop by for at least 10% off!!

I'll be back in a day or so with my 365 pics, just need to get them on the computer :P lol

Happy Thursday!
<3 Gillian

I made it...

to Round 3 of the Scrapping With the Stars contest over at Coordinates Collections! I'm pretty excited about that! It's down to just 6 people left, and only 3 will be going on to the final round. If I get chosen to move on, I'll win a prize, so i'm pretty stoked about it! BUT the stars who I have to be 'inspired' by are Jen Dubbs (who is a CC Design Team member) and Tim Holtz. I am SOOOOOO not a Tim Holtz kind of scrapper. EEEK!!! What to do, what to do! Please cross your fingers that the scrap gods send some mojo my way on Saturday while I work on these layouts! lol

So, I worked my first day in the scrapbook store yesterday! It was a blast! Well, as much of a blast as working can be, anyways! I loved helping people find products and giving advice and tips. SO much fun :)

Okay, it is WAY past my bedtime, but i wanted to just blog quick and share these next couple 365 photos with you! Plus my two layouts from the last round of Scrapping with the Stars.

This was my Elsie Flannigan inspired layout for Round 2 of Scrapping With the Stars!

This was inspired by one of the DT members at CC. I LOVE how this turned out!
Photo credit goes to my fabulous sister :)

Wanted to document my favourite towel. It's cheap and crappy and from Walmart.. but it soaks up the water AMAZINGLY well. Love it :)

Who wouldn't love working in a store with so much pretty stuff??

Finally got my ATC's from my first swap back! They look so pretty in
the box I decorated for them :)

Happy Friday!!!
<3 Gillian

I did it again!

Went a whole week without blogging! That's what happens when my sister and my little man (aka Nate, my nephew) are home! I go to work, I spend time with my sis and Nate, I go home, I spend a little time playing WoW with Brandon, and then it's bed! Not much blogging, blog reading, or scrapping going on lately! I'm sure that I will fit in more computer/scrapping time once I stop spending so much time with Nate and Jen. But it's hard, because Nate is ridiculously adorable and I love my sister a lot. Just today at lunch we spent half the time laughing hysterically about things I can't even remember now! lol

So, what have I been doing all this time with my sis and Nate? Not much! Just chilling, chatting, taking almost all my 365 photos of Nate. Yesterday was GORGEOUS outside though, so we all trekked off to the beach. I LOVE living in Comox on days like that. It was warm, sunny, no wind and the beach was amazing with all the mountain views. Jack and Turner ran around like mad, Nate snuggled on Jen's back in the carrier and we all enjoyed a nice walk. It was a perfect day :) Unfortunately the running around like mad for Turner also involved swimming, which inevitably causes him to shake the water off, and onto anyone nearby. This resulted in splashes all over the camera.... so none of the pics turned out :( Booo!! Just a good excuse to head out and do it again soon :)

Well, I will leave you with the last of my 365 photos and the link to Scrap n' Art so you can all go submit and subscribe ;)

My good friend Jas FINALLY met Nate for the first time!
Monday's mean production day at work. Last minute proofing of the paper before we send it to print.
Nate's new favourite thing is to shove any cup he can into his mouth and suck on it. We're not sure whether he should be doing it... but the pictures are too funny to resist! lol
Love this pic of "Uncle Brandon" trying to be cheerful with a cranky Nate! lol
Look at how adorable he is!! This is the sweet little old man sweater Brandon and I got him for Christmas! About 2 seconds after taking this picture he spit up ALL over himself! lol
Why must black cats be so hard to photograph?
My favourite 365 photo yet. Jen and Nate before we head to the field for a walk.
Snapped this one using the Photo Booth on Jen's Mac. Does that count? I say it does :) I'm such a nerd and LOVE taking the stupid distorted pictures. lol
In the process of putting my 2007 photo album together. Something about filled up photo albums just makes me so happy :D

And on that note, I'm going to go finish the notes in my 2007 album.
Happy Monday!
<3 Gillian