From Bad to Worse...

So, my cold has now turned into a stomach bug! And let me tell you, I am NOT happy about it! Throwing up has got to be the most awful thing, or at least one of them. I hurt EVERYWHERE, my ribcage is in such pain from forcing stuff up that it hurts to breathe and talk... and my throat is raw from so much acid going over it... that well, let's just say I'm very CRANKY!! lol

So I will not go on and on, because I don't want you to all think I'm a whiny person (although when I'm sick, I'm a VERY VERY whiny person! lol.) Just thought I would pop in and update you on the fact that I'm still alive...although at times it feels like just barely.

On a happier note, today at SIStv I made THE CATWALK!!! For those of you who don't know, The Catwalk is where the Fashionistas (the amazing SIStv design team) each choose their favourite layout from the past week and post it. It's super SUPER exciting for me, and I think it's about the only thing that made me smile today through the aches and pain. YAY! The fabulous Jody Ferlaak was the Fashionista that chose me, which made it even better since I think she is an awesome, awesome scrapper! She is also a very inspiring person and has a FABULOUS blog, so I definitely recommend you check it out :)

I will leave you with the last 2 days worth of 365's ... they suck... it's hard to take great photos when you're stuck in bed :P lol
Happy Tuesday!
<3 Gillian

P.S. The forums are up over at the Little Scrap Shop! The other DT members and I are having a blast, so you should come join us ;) HERE

Photo Update!

Okay, I'm getting a cold, and I'm not feeling chatty today! Boooo! But I wanted to post my latest 365 photos as well as the one or 2 projects I've done lately that aren't assignments and can be posted on here! So, I will leave you with photos and hopes that you enjoy the last bit of your weekend :) It was sunny out, so I put on the shades and my puffy jacket and headed out to play with the puppies!Forgot to take my photo, I remembered at like 11:30pm, couldn't find my camera, so I snapped a quick photo of Hope! Oops! lol Quick close up of one of the decorations in my hallway. Went to my monthly Stampin Up party. The group this time is all my best scrappy friends, it was awesome!! Camera ran out of batteries and I couldn't find my charger :( SO i snapped this cellphone pic of Brandon and I before we went for dinner. Love this little view of Jack sleeping behind the laptop! He's just too cute :)

Wow, that was a lot of photos! Sorry about that :P And now for two more quick ones. These are layouts I did while scrapping at my friend Barbs place (which, by the way, is the BEST place to scrap!). I'm liking the one of Nate (though credit for that AMAZING photo goes to my uber talented sis, Jen, not me), because the photo and papers are such fun. The stuff for that layout all came from the January kit over at Coordinates Collections. The other layout from Halloween is not totally my current style.. it's a bit plain. But the papers (which are great and are from Stampin Up!) were busy and I wanted to just focus on the photos. So that's that!


Happy Sunday!
<3 Gillian

P.S. I made it through to the second round of Scrappin With The Stars over at Coordinates Collections, so now it's down to 20 people and they'll narrow it to ten in the first round! I'm done my layouts and will be posting them over at the forums there soon, so you should go join and check them out! :)

P.P.S. Have you check out The Little Scrap Shop yet? You should ;)

HAPPY DANCE!!

You may be wondering why I am doing a happy dance... so I will tell you! I MADE THE DESIGN TEAM AT The Little Scrap Shop!! I am so unbelievably stoked about it! The competition in the second round was fierce and I wasn't sure I'd make it. BUT I'M IN!! And I'm so glad :) The ladies over there are amazing! I've met so many great people during the process and think I'll really be making some great friends. The owner, Angel, is super motivated and fabulous. She has big plans for the site and it will be growing all year long. Also, if you like kits, their current one is awesome and the upcoming ones are looking pretty hot too! The cool thing with being on the DT is we get to help make the kits, so look out for a fabulous kit made by moi! ;)

In other happy news, I will also be doing graphic design for the sites new EZine! We have BIG plans for this little project, so I'm hoping it will get HUGE!!! Wow, doing graphic design that has to do with scrapbooking? It's like my dream come true! And I get 'paid' in scrapbook supplies.... what could be better? *continues on with her happy dance*

Okay, I want to post some projects that I did for the Round 2 Design Team contest and then I'll leave you to your Friday!
This one was done using only cardstock, paint, and office supplies!

This one took inspiration from Gustav Klimt's Tree of Life painting. Isn't my little man adorable?? hehe
This was for a Basic Grey product challenge. All the papers used are from Basic Grey's Mellow line. This album is about my Family "Right Now". I'm quite pleased with it! You can check out the whole thing over at Flickr in this set.

And that's it! I will post tomorrow with some other projects and my 365 photos. Just didn't want to bore you to death with this post! lol Happy Friday everyone!!

<3 Gillian

WOOHOO!!!

I did it! I actually finished my Christmas Journal, and within a month of Christmas no less! :) I'm fairly certain that if I hadn't had to go home to Ontario for 2 weeks over Christmas that I would have got this puppy done on time. Until the day I left I was completely on track with doing my one page a day. But, while I was away I made sure to do my journaling on the important days, and sketch out ideas for others. I would have finished earlier, but I was just waiting on getting back a couple photos from my sister's camera. Got those last night, and slapped my last couple pages together. So now, I present to you, my COMPLETED Christmas Journal!

I did my pages in all different sizes and mediums, and I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out. I feel like I could just flip through this thing for hours :) I'll share with you a couple of my favourite pages:




So there you have it! Christmas in an album :) I don't think i'll really scrap too many other Christmas photos now that I have this, maybe just a couple of Nate (cause he's too hard to resist!) And I'll DEFINITELY be doing this project again next year, and I highly recommend you all signing up along with me at Shimelle's site. You only have to sign up once and you can join in every year :)

I will leave you with something completely unrelated to Christmas... my 365 photo from yesterday:

Yes, that's right... it's a skeleton... from Hallowe'en! lol It sort of blends in with the window and I never notice it, so it's just stayed up since October! Oops! I felt I should document that before I took it down, which I swear I'm going to do today! lol

Happy Tuesday!
<3 Gillian

I'm a bad, bad, blogger!

Wow, look at the time? It's already Sunday and I haven't blogged in awhile! I've just been not inspired lately... at least not to blog! I have been inspired to clean up my scrap area (although it's still a work in progress) and to finish a couple layouts. I've also kept on top of my 365 challenge! Go me :) I'm even up to date with sticking them in my little journal.

Here is a layout I did for 2 challenges. I combined the theme from over at OLW and the sketch from Lotus Paperie. If you haven't checked out Lotus Paperie, I highly recommend it. The kits are awesome, and one of my fave bloggers, Jessi, designs over there :)
The word at OLW was 'still' ... so I used a recent pic of my sis and I (and little Nate too!) and scrapped about how we're still best friends. I like how it turned out :)

Okay, I am going to leave you with some 365 goodness and then continue to play some WoW until I am inspired to work on another scrap project. Hope you all had a good weekend!







See ya on Tuesday when my week off begins :D
<3 Gillian

My Article is Up!

Just wanted to let everyone know that my featured article (from being a Round 2 DT contestant) is up over at the Little Scrap Shop blog. It's about my art/photo/best me journal, which is my current little project of inspiration. CHeck it out :)

Happy Wednesday!
<3 Gillian

My Crazy 8's

Hey all! Hope you all had a fabulous weekend! Mine wasn't too bad. I did some scrapping, a whole lot of World of Warcraft playing (still on the lookout for other people who scrap and play WoW.. are you out there? lol) and whole lot of NOT CLEANING. Oops! I'm pretty sure I was supposed to take down my Christmas tree and clean up my scrap stuff. Speaking of my scrap stuff, I would like to report that it has now taken over both the kitchen table and the coffee table. Brandon now has nowhere to eat... and I'm not gonna lie, he's a bit cranky about it! lol But he still ooh's and aah's when I create new layouts and projects, and loves me regardless of my crazy scrap obsession :) In my final piece of scrapbooking news, there was a cyber crop yesterday and today over at Coordinates Collections and one of the challenges they had going on was to scrap a quote by someone. I, of course, chose my fabulous sister to scrap! I chose a goofy pic of her and scrapped one of her best blond moments (although she's not blond!)

Basically the quote is from the time when my sister thought she'd come up with a fabulous idea for 'individual sized servings of potato chips' ... until she noticed us all staring at her. I politely responded with "You mean like the little bags you can get in EVERY SINGLE STORE!!" lol Ah, it was a great moment, and I truly love to harass her about it (I love you Jen!), she will be so pleased that it is immortalized on a scrap page now! Haha! NOTE: sorry about the crap photo of the layout, I took it at night since I needed to submit the layout for the challenge by midnight, and it was already dark. I would have retaken it tomorrow for the blog, but we all know i'm lazy and i'd probably forget :P

As I was doing my daily blog surfing today I noticed this little doo-dad over at Kerry's blog. She tagged anyone who wanted to, so I figured I would do it, since it's late at night and I have nothing more to say :P

8 Passions in my life:
my boyfriend
my bond with my sister
scrapbooking and creating
loving and caring for animals
country music
being a Cleveland Browns fan
being a good friend
purses

8 Things to do before I die:
go back to Australia
take a cruise
open a shelter/foster home for homeless cats
work at/for some type of scrapbooking company
have children and raise them well
live with my sister again (well, not with, but very very near)
Become Mrs. Brandon Querin
own a bulldog

8 things I often say:
WOOT!
I'm not gonna lie..
I'll cut you!
You're such a nub
Pulling in 5 (you'd get it if you were a WoW nerd like me :P)
Seriously
You no tell me "insert adjective here" (always said with a foreign accent)
I just love you, love you, love you! (to animals and nephew)

8 books {and/or magazines} I’ve read recently:
The Devil Wears Prada
Understanding Exposure
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (wow,that was in July, i don't read enough! lol)
Creating Keepsakes
Scrapbooks Etc
Memory Makers
Simple Scrapbooks
do board books with my nephew count? lol I've read lots of those!

8 Songs that mean something to me:
Unwell - Matchbox Twenty (this is my theme song, or it was when i was sick and depressed)
All Jacked Up - Gretchen Wilson (my party anthem)
My Best Friend - Tim McGraw (mine and Brandon's song)
Your Kiss is on my List - Hall & Oates
Landslide - The Dixie Chicks
I Need You - Backstreet Boys (reminds me of my youth! :P)
Where The Green Grass Grows - Tim McGraw (My sister will know why I love this one.... "Point our rocket ships towards the west" :P lol)
Back 2 Good - Matchbox Twenty

8 Qualities I look for in a friend:
silliness
a big heart
understanding
good hugger
honest
loyal
intelligence
wild and crazy

I'm supposed to now tag 8 people, but I won't, I just want as many people who want to do it, to link me up, so I can read them :) Jen, this does mean you :P

I will leave you with my last 2 365 pics.

The simple pleasures in life... using the laptop in bed, with a warm, soft cat on your lap! :)

I'm not sure how I scrap in this mess... but I love, love, love it!!

Hope you all have a great Monday!
<3 Gillian

365 and healthy stuff!

Wow, I can't believe I haven't blogged since Tuesday... it feels like just yesterday! I suppose I haven't blogged, cause I really just feel like I have nothing to say this week. I think I'm having a case of the winter blah's. That combined with needing to start back to eating healthy and working out (which always makes me feel crappy, for some reason) has just got me in a very private, mopey type mood. Blah!

But on a happier note, I've kept up my 365 photos! I really need to start challenging myself at taking more artistic, quality photos, instead of just snapping something random. I've gotten lazy with that the past few days, but I'm still taking pics, and that's a good thing. I have *counts* 355 (i think that's right) days left to improve my skills :) So here are my last couple days worth:

the cards I made for the Valentine's ATC swap over at SISTV

My chihuahua's latest toy. This thing quacks SO loud, scares the poop out of me regularly! lol

The prompt from Anna today was about family (and how crazy they are), so I snapped this pic of me with some of my fur family. It is super, duper hard to get yourself and two dogs, of completely different sizes no less, into a self photo!

And that is my 365 so far! I'm still impressed that I'm keeping up, GO ME! Now if only I can show so much dedication to my health... I did workout yesterday, and get a walk in today though... so that's good! To help with my weight loss/healthy living goals, I'm going to add a sidebar here at the blog, so I can be held accountable for my actions and you guys feel free to get on me if I don't keep up with it!

Enjoy your weekend!
<3 Gillian

P.S. My sis has a great post up about consuming too much.... go check it out! I agree with and admire everything she says, and I couldn't sum it up any better, so I figured you could just read her thoughts on the matter :) Go here!

Home sweet home!

Well I'm back home, and BOY does it feel great :) Sleeping in my own bed with my little ones (aka the two cats and my chihuahua) around me felt AMAZING! You know what else was amazing? Talking to my mom on the phone today! She got her tracheotomy removed (the tube she had in her neck to help her breath) and she can talk now! She sounded just like her old self, and it was perfect to hear her talking :)

Not much to say today, but I do have my latest 365 photo to share with you. The prompt from Anna was about colours that look good on you. I wasn't feeling it, since I don't have a favourite colour that looks good on me... but one of my favourite colours is brown.. and I saw this moment of my chihuahua, Jack, and my sisters dog, Turner (who I'm taking care of while she's away) playing on their bed. They're both shades of brownish, so I snapped a photo. Love that Turner is being a good boy and sitting perfectly still for the camera... and Jack is a blur of motion and energy, harassing Turner (as usual!) Lol!

I wanted to point out that my sister is also doing the 365 challenge, and has posted her photos over at her blog, so you should all check it out! She also has some adorable photos of my nephew over there, and could use some cheering up ;)

See you tomorrow, hopefully after a long day of scrapping!!!
<3 Gillian

P.S. Thanks to all the fabulous people who have sent me RAK's to cheer me up about my mom :)

I'm going home!

Well, this is my last day in Ontario with my family! I'm both sad and happy. I am glad to get home to my kittens, my puppy and my SCRAP SUPPLIES!! I'm super sad to leave my mom. :( She's just starting to be able to talk, and I know she loves having me here to visit each day. But I need to get back to my job, and I need money! lol So my sister will have to stay behind and take care of my mom for me.... wish her luck! lol

I have a couple pieces of exciting news to share... I am going to be the featured Guest Design Team member for February over at Coordinates Collections! I'm so stoked to get to play with their cute Valentine's kit. This is my first spot on a design team of any type, and I'm pretty excited. :) Also, I made it through to Round 2 of the design team search over at the The Little Scrap Shop! It's some tough competition though, so I'm fairly certain I am not the best there. But it will be fun working on the projects that we have to do. I'll be sure to share them with you :)

Now, on to some photos!! First, here are my last 2 365 photos. The first is of my cellphone laying on the bed... it documents a daily routine of mine! The next is of my eyes... it was supposed to be capturing my beauty.

Lastly, I wanted to share this adorable photo of my nephew (and me in the corner!) that I took yesterday. I was trying to do a self portrait, but i had the wrong lens on and it zoomed too much! lol Still, I like the way they turned out :)

Enjoy the last of your weekend, I'll be back on Tuesday from Beautiful British Columbia!

<3 Gillian

One Little Word ... and 365

To start off, here are my last two days of the 365 photo challenge. Most people are doing this as a self portrait challenge... but I wanted to just document life and photograph whatever moved me, sometimes using the prompt from Anna, and sometimes just going on a tangent of my own. So far I've used the prompts for inspiration. My day 2 photo was based on the lyrics from the Michael Jackson song "Man in the Mirror." I'm so loving the look of 'photographer me' in the mirror! I'm just learning proper photography skills, and I can't wait to practice and improve over the year. Hope there's lots more of me and a camera this year. :)

Day 3's prompt was about imperfection. I find I'm constantly critiquing my scrapbook layouts and 'art'... and I just need to not worry about it so much! Especially lately, since I've been taking part in lots of challenges. I sometimes forget that the challenge is about inspiration and creating, not about winning... must learn to embrace the imperfections that I create. So i took a photo of a recent mini album I put together. It's chipping, which bugged me at first... but now I think it adds character :)

Finally, I decided to take a cue from Ali Edwards and come up with One Little Word to define my year by. I came up with harmonize. I was originally going to use 'organize' but that sounded too harsh. I do want to organize, but not overly... just to the point where my life is in harmony. You should all come up with a word for your years!!

<3 Gillian

P.S. If you are a crafty person, but are looking for some ideas and inspiration, then check out Courtney DeLaura's Project 52. A year long tutorial site, it's fabulous!! You won't regret it ;)

365 - January 1

Here's day 1 of my 365 challenge... I'm going to try to take a picture everyday this year. I'm probably going to follow the inspiration of Anna B and her challenge.

Today the inspiration was 'laughter' so I wanted to get a great photo of my nephew laughing and giggling, but he refused to giggle in front of the camera! So instead I got a suprised photo of him when he woke up on my lap. Any photo of him is still cute :)

In the next day or so I will be adding links to my sidebar for all the fun challenges and inspirational things I'm attempting/using this year, so keep your eyes peeled :)

<3 Gillian