Spunky Scrapn'

On Friends...

2008-09-10T15:00:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-01T23:04:00.001-07:00

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!

2008-07-19T20:50:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-06-25T11:54:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-17T21:53:00.001-07:00

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...

2008-06-11T11:39:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-05-22T15:35:00.000-07:00

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!!

2008-05-14T08:50:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-05-07T20:43:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-04-24T21:16:00.001-07:00

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

I've lost my mojo!

2008-04-20T22:37:00.000-07:00

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 ;)

2008-04-15T21:41:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-03-14T19:17:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-03-06T21:33:00.001-08:00

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...

2008-02-28T22:43:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-02-25T14:19:00.000-08:00

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

Scrap n' Art!

2008-02-19T20:09:00.000-08:00

See? I told you i'd be back today ;) Just a quick update to let you know about the current calls going on over at the EZine that I'm working on. I would LOVE to see you all submit! There are calls for mini's, grad layouts, mom/dad layouts, and more! Please, please, please head over to the Scrap n' Art site and check out the calls. While you are there make sure you subscribe using the sign up tool! We're giving away a HUGE prize to one random subscriber. And it's free to subscribe. What more can you ask for? :)

Been spending LOTS of time with my sister and my little man. Nate is CRANKY and not sleeping well. Which means my sister is stressed, and i'm worried about her. I hate to see her unhappy :( and when Nate just cries all day and won't sleep, she is very unhappy. I spent the afternoon with him so she could get out of the house. I will hopefully spend more time with him this week too!

Okay, now on to some more 365 from the past week:

Little Nate came home! Loved cuddles with Auntie Gill :)

Bouncing baby! All smiles in the Jolly Jumper :)

Pasta at White Spot. Notice that Brandon gave me his pickle? I have him well trained!

Walk in the woods with the family!

I will post the last couple days tomorrow when I get them on the computer :)

Happy Tuesday!
<3 Gillian

I'll be back...

2008-02-17T23:11:00.000-08:00

on Tuesday. True story!

Today....

2008-02-12T20:32:00.001-08:00

...I was panicky. It was not good. Reminded me of myself 4 years ago. Which is bad. VERY bad. On the bright side I got to talk to my Mom to make me feel better, which was a very very very nice change from the past. So that made me smile.

Then we took Jack to agility. More smiles. He wore his orange sweater :)

Daily photos:This one didn't turn out... boo!Mmmmm...sausage.All day crop... lots of Cricuty goodness.Love. Love. Love. Clip It Up.Brandon attacked my face. I look like a noob.Drugs were not enough to stop the anxiety today.

Tomorrow my sister comes home, and Nate. It will be better than today, I'm sure of it!

Sorry for the depressing post!
<3 Gillian

Bad, bad, bad Gillian!

2008-02-10T17:13:00.000-08:00

Well, apparently I suck at blogging! lol You'd think on my week off I could update you all.. but NO! I was too busy cleaning and scrapping and sleeping and GETTING A NEW JOB! That's right ladies (and gentlemen) I am now employed (very) part time at Scrapbook Central :D I'm pretty excited about getting to work in the store and getting to prepare and teach some classes. YAY!!

I also spent the whole day yesterday at a crop with some friends. It was a blast and I got 6 layouts done. GO ME! I even used stamps and my Cricut, which were my goals! Then today I've been working on a couple layouts for the Winterlicious CHA challenges over at SIStv. So, since I am not in a chatty mood (been a wee depressed lately... not sure why. maybe my sis and Nate coming home on Wednesday will brighten me up!) I will leave you with my layouts from the past two days. It's dinner time for me!

Happy Sunday!
<3 Gillian

It's about time!

2008-02-06T14:50:00.002-08:00

Well, I'm just today starting to feel myself again! THANK GOODNESS! I had to work all day Monday to get the paper out, and MAN was that exhausting! So yesterday I slept a good portion of the day, but today I woke up and I felt like ME. I even went so far as to do my hair, makeup and wear human clothes. Went and did a few errands and felt like a person again :) Here's my 365 from today, needed to document the fact that I was dressed and outside today! lol

Not much going on this week. I'm back into my days off.. which feels weird since I only worked one full day... man I'm going to be BROKE soon! lol Which is why I've talked with some of the owners of local scrapbook stores and am going to visit and bring resumes and portfolios tomorrow. I'm looking for just a BIT of extra work in my off weeks, and would LOVE the opportunity to teach some classes :) So wish me luck!

I've been working pretty hard at getting things ready for the EZine that I'm a part of. In fact, the girls from the design team have decided to close down the monthly kit portion of our team and focus strictly on the zine. We already have quite a few advertisers, submissions and product donations, so I'm REALLY excited! There is actually an open call on right now for the Zine, and I would LOVE to see some of you submit your work. You can get all the details at the official Scrap n' Art website. We really want this to be HUGE, so head on over and submit.

I have been quite scrappy lately, but they have mostly been projects I can't post here. For different DT calls and for some contests, but as soon as I make something fun that I CAN share, it will be here. I'll leave you with some 365 from the past days.A sneak peek of my entry over at Coordinates Collections for their Scrapping with the Stars contest. If you're a member there, head over and vote!Reading my new book in my pj's in the sun!Mmmmmm, sour cream on my pasta! Heaven ;)Little Jack trying to lick peanut butter off his nose. Is it mean that when I give him peanut butter as a snack I smear it on his face, because it amuses me to watch him lick it off? lol

Happy Wednesday everyone!
<3 Gillian

A Quickie For Ya ;)

2008-02-01T23:37:00.000-08:00

Hey all! Hope you're all gearing up for a fabulous weekend full of fun and Superbowl parties! I probably won't be doing much partying for the Super Bowl this year, since I'm still getting over whatever bug i have. But I'm sure I'll watch and possibly partake in some snacks ;) I'm cheering for the Patriots, they're not my team (GO BROWNS!) but I'd like to see them have an undefeated season!

Not much going down around here, I'm still sick... I'm still cranky... and Brandon is just about fed up with me! lol But in happier news, I'm the featured Guest Designer over at Coordinates Collections! I'm not sure why, but I got all giddy and goose bumpy when I saw my pic on the front page for the Guest Designer position! So go check it out! You can read my cheesy bio and see my goodies that I made with the kit!

Speaking of Design Teams, the crew over at The Little Scrap Shop has whipped up a new kit for February! And it's a good one, I must say! Can't wait to get mine to play with! It's a good price too, totally affordable for what you're getting! There are even some great little clear stamps in there. LOVE LOVE LOVE kits that include things I can use over and over again :) While you're over there checking it out, come on and join the forum! It's a bunch of great people so far :) We also have an EZine starting up soon, and our first call is on now, so you'll want to check that out (and Jen, I am SO making you submit!)

I will leave you with some 365 photos from the past few days. I really need to get out and take some great OUTDOOR photos. Stupid being sick :(

Happy Friday!
<3 Gillian

From Bad to Worse...

2008-01-29T16:14:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-01-27T12:34:00.000-08:00

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!!

2008-01-25T11:23:00.000-08:00

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!!!

2008-01-22T10:01:00.001-08:00

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!

2008-01-20T20:13:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-01-16T07:25:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-13T23:59:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-01-11T20:59:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-01-08T20:24:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-01-06T08:57:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-03T21:12:00.001-08:00

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

2008-01-01T19:10:00.000-08:00

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

Christmas Wrap Up!

2007-12-29T19:14:00.000-08:00

Well, Christmas is officially over, and the New Year is on it's way! Christmas actually went better than I thought it would, seeing as I wasn't at home and was dealing with my Mom being in hospital. Ended up having some great moments over the holiday, especially with it being Nate's first Christmas. One special moment was seeing my sister read him his first Night Before Christmas (which is a family tradition for us), and another was seeing my Dad reading his first grandchild stories before bed. He's such a great Grandpa, it was too cute. :)

Ended up with some fun presents too! Brandon got me a great book on photography, all about setting up proper exposure (I'm still a photography nub). So I'm looking forward to improving my photography in the new year (more of that later when I start talking about my 365 challenge.) And... wait for it... my sis got me a CLIP IT UP! I'm so stoked about using this awesome storage device for my large sticker/rub on stash. So looking forward to getting back to Comox to set it up. :)

Speaking of being back in Comox, I'm still staying at my mom's place in Ontario right now. She's been improving quite a bit in the hospital, and she told me she would really love me to stay as long as I could, so Brandon and I added an extra week onto our trip. The huge smile on her face when I told her I was staying longer, was well worth it! I hate seeing her stuck in a hospital bed with tubes and iv's all over her, but let it be a lesson to everyone to take care of themselves! Especially you smokers out there *shakes a finger at any bad smokers* But it's looking like she'll make it through, though it will be a long, hard, road to recovery.

Till next time, have a safe and happy New Year!

<3 Gillian

P.S. I wanted to fill this post with great Christmas photos, but I keep forgetting them on my sisters camera! Silly me. hehe

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-22T12:19:00.000-08:00

Well, this will be my last post before the holidays, so I hope everyone has a fabulous Christmas and enjoys time with all their friends and family :) I leave tomorrow night to head back to Ontario to see my sister and Dad (and Mom, in the hospital). I'm not excited about how things are turning out this Christmas, but I will make the best of it. Happy to get to see my Dad, and planning to hang out with a couple old friends from high school, which should be fun! Tonight is Christmas with Brandon's family, so we get turkey (yummy!) and presents!! Very excited :)

I've been trying to take lots of photos of the sights of the season around here, and I think some of them have turned out quite well! I'm excited to do a fun layout after with all my fave pics.

Speaking of layouts, I'll leave you with this one that I finished last night of my Grandpa and Uncle Frank (who is basically my 3rd Grandpa). This pic is from 4 years ago at my sisters wedding, and it's such a good pic of them! I love to remember my Grandpa (who passed away this year) with that big smile on his face, and my Uncle Frank looks cute too. I used the kit from Coordinates Collections (for November). If you've never been there to check out their kits I highly recommend it! The kits aren't as big and full as some other places, but I like it that way. You get enough stuff to do a couple 2 page spreads or 4-5 single page layouts. It's perfect cause you don't get bored of the style and have an album full of the same type paper. Also (and this is the best part), you get to choose between two kits each month. There has yet to be a month since I discovered this place where I didn't love at least one of the kits! And it's a good price, so go check it out :)

Merry Christmas to everyone! See you after the holiday

<3 Gillian

Santa Baby!

2007-12-20T19:00:00.000-08:00

I'm still on a roll with my scrapping! Up to date on my Christmas Journal (which I so thought I'd fall behind on, let's see what happens when I head away for the holidays!) and gotten quite a few other layouts done besides that! I worked on a layout last night for the challenge over at How Much Is Too Much, in which you had to use 5 patterned papers, 5 ribbons, 5 embellishments, 5 stamps and 5 fasteners. The theme was 'Top 5' and to do with the holidays. It was a fun challenge and there aren't many entries so far, so you should go and check it out :) I'm just loving my finished layout, which is odd for me, normally I don't like my work too much!

So tonight Brandon and I are going to cozy up in front of the TV with some good old National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and finish up our wrapping (ie. start our wrapping! lol). He even spoiled me (as usual) and made a nice lasagna type thing for dinner, with veggies and my FAVOURITE dip! I'm not sure how I was so lucky as to find this guy, but trust me, I am never giving him up! :)

Just a few more days until I head back to Ontario for Christmas. My whole family is there, so it's where I need to be for Christmas, but I'd much rather enjoy Christmas in my own house. But my mom, who is still in ICU, is doing a bit better, and is awake and starting to talk, so she wants to see us on Christmas. I'm glad I'll be able to be there and cheer her up a bit :)

Happy Thursday all!
<3 Gillian

P.S. I'm working on an adorable little project that I so wanted to show everyone, but it's a Christmas present for my sister and she reads this, so I can't :P But keep your eyes peeled post-Christmas to check it out :)

Missing my little man

2007-12-18T07:33:00.001-08:00

Well, my sister and Nate (my nephew) have been gone for less than two weeks and I just miss them like crazy! I knew I'd miss my sister, since we're ridiculously close, and with Mom so sick it would be nice to have eachother close by, but I didn't think I'd miss Nate so much! At least with Jen I get to talk to her each day. It's pretty hard to talk to a 3 month old! lol All I can do is hear his little giggles on the phone and picture his big smiles. But I just want to see his big smiles :(

This time away from him is only temporary, but next year my sister and her husband will be posted away to another Air Force base... which means they'll be moving my little man across the country. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to let them leave! lol Anyone have a good plan as to how to keep a family of three (plus a giant dog) living in your basement? :P

Anyways, speaking of Nate, I did a little layout of him the other night. I'm not super pleased with it, was hoping it would turn out better, but the photos are adorable, so I thought I'd share anyways. Happy Tuesday!

Random Christmas Hoopla!

2007-12-17T00:05:00.000-08:00

My sister tagged me with this today, so here goes!

The Random Christmas Hoopla!
Here goes:

1. List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas
2. Please refer to it as a ‘hoopla’ and not the dreaded ‘m’-word (which, for you bloggy newbies, is meme)
3. You have to specifically tag people when you’re done. None of this “if you’re reading this, consider yourself tagged” stuff is allowed…then nobody ends up actually doing it. The number of people who you tag is really up to you — but the more, the merrier to get this ‘hoopla’ circulating through the blogosphere.
4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it and I’d like to get as many people involved as possible.

Random Chrismas "Me-Things"

1. I get irritated if i'm opening presents with people and they don't go one at a time! You're supposed to go one at a time people!!

2. I have no children, so I take my dog to see Santa Clause. I even dressed him up in a santa sweater to match!

3. When I was young I thought my Baby's First Christmas ornament was very fancy and made of crystal. I don't think it was until I was like 15 that I kind of had the realization that it's just cheap plastic, and probably from Walmart! lol

4. My family had a little ornament on our tree that was a tiny book with the lyrics to Christmas songs in it (and yes Jen, you're right, I will never forgive you for ending up with it! lol). It was my fave ornament and to this day I still get excited by Christmas lyric songbooks for some reason. I know all the lyrics to different songs, so i'm not sure why I love them so much lol

5. The best Christmas present I remember getting as a kid was the board game Mall Madness. It was a board game about shopping!! There were even little credit cards you swiped, and it talked. WAY too cool! lol

6. The first Christmas present I got for my sister with my own money, that I picked on my own, was a cheesy little candle holder with a fireplace and a mouse. She stil has it, bless her soul! lol

7. I have never got a bad Christmas present from my mom! She always gets me the most amazing gifts. Apparently even this year, while she's in hospital, I have a cool gift coming my way (or so my sister says).

8. I love the egg nog latte's from Starbucks (only available at Christmas time) even though I ALWAYS feel sick after drinking one! lol

9. I LOVE making my own ornaments! And I pawn off these ornaments to others and call them gifts! I've made penguins and snowmen out of lightbulbs, snowmen out of boxes and adorable gingerbread men out of cookie cutters. I think they're pretty cool :)

10. I buy and wrap presents for all my pets, and then open them for them :P And if i find something I really want for myself while shopping, i'll buy it, wrap it and sign it "To Mom, From Hope" ... Hope is my cat!

11. Christmas isn't Christmas without crackers (those things you pop at the dinner table) and the silly jokes and hats that come inside them. My Aunt Bev was always the only one who would wear her hat all night. Everyone else wears it for the obligatory 6 minutes and then takes it off. Not Aunt Bev, it would be like 2 hours after dinner and she'd still be wearing it! lol

12. I get into the festive spirit, even in my online video game world! I love in World of Warcraft when they have the Winter's Veil festival. Just today I made myself a cute little santa outfit and got a pet reindeer. Too much fun!!

And that's that! I won't tag anyone, cause I don't know enough people who read here, and mostly did this to amuse my sister. But if you're doing it on your blog, please leave a comment so I can check it out :)

Happy Holidays!

Hope - One Little Word

2007-12-14T14:53:00.000-08:00

Here's my take on the current challenge at One Little Word. Hope couldn't have been a more perfect word for me to use at this point in time! My mom is currently very very ill, and in the critical care ward of the hospital. I'm not with her and there's not much I can do but sit here and hope for the best. I did the layout on a Heidi Swapp transparent clock face, because time seemed to be an important theme with my hopes. I used some of my favourite photos of my mom. Not amazing photos, but ones that mean something and make me smile. I'm awful at photographing transparencies so if anyone has any tips, please let me know! lol

Oh Christmas Tree!

2007-12-13T15:46:00.000-08:00

Wow! I actually took a picture all by myself that I'm proud of! This never really happens, as I am so not a good photographer, but with inspiration from my sister and other online sites, I'm trying to learn new tricks of the trade! It's the one thing I tend to dislike about a lot of my scrapbook pages ... bad photos! So I figure it should be the first thing I try to improve.

I started working on taking some good photos of my Christmas tree for my Christmas Journal (I'm taking the class with Shimelle). I played with settings and by using the aperture priority setting and a slow shutter speed (I THINK that made sense, but don't quote me! lol) I got a pretty decent photo. :)

I then used the photo on my layout for the day, which had me discuss my Christmas tree, and that turned out quite well too! All in all, a great day in the scrapbooking world of Gillian :)

I finally joined the world of blogging!

2007-12-11T14:37:00.001-08:00

Well, i've been obsessed with the online world of scrapbooking for awhile now and finally decided that I needed my own little corner of the web to post my inspiration, photos and scrapping layouts! I'll try to be clever and witty with my posts, but i'm not gonna lie, I'm not always the best writer in the world! lol

I've been scrapping now for about 5 years and I just now feel like my layouts are anything worth looking at, and even now, they're not always worth looking at! lol But I love every one, because they tell my story, and that's what scrapbooking is about :)

To start off, here is a layout I just finished for the December challenge over at Got Mojo?. I'm constantly surfing challenge blogs, but always too afraid to enter, but I figured, why not? I might not win, but it's about the inspiration anyways, and I'm quite pleased with this layout :)

Hope you enjoy and I'll be back with more in the next couple days :)