Creating

The girls are making Valentines for their classmates today. There are 23 in grade 1/2 for Shayna to make. 17 in grade 3/4 for Kira to make plus 4 for her music class. Plus teachers. I posted on Facebook that we were making Valentine's today and posted the picture. Then got the comment "oh, you're literally making Valentines" Yup we are. Shayna got all hers done. Tomorrow she wants to do some for family and some TA's etc at the school.

Outside today was the breathtaking hoar frost. Then the blue skies came out and the thick frost fell off. So gorgeous while it lasts. The view from my living room window with the blue skies. The other photo is from my kitchen window. Yes we live in town, can't you see the neighbours houses? No and it's even better when the leaves are out on the trees. But it doesn't really matter because we have great neighbours, all older and quiet. -17C (1F) with a -23C (-9F)windchill. Not to bad, at least the sun was shining and the days are getting longer! Sunrise 8:45am sunset 5:45pm. I need sunlight. Can't wait until the summer when it's light until after midnight and the sun rises at 3 or 4 am -- not really sure I'm not up that early. I'm so not an early bird. Love my sleep wayyyy to much. That's what is happening around here today.

Design Team and Coach

I'm very excited to announce that I'm on the Design Team at Sharing Memories Scrapbooking Noreen and I have been virtual friends and are fellow Albertans. We 'met' through a Big Picture Scrapbooking class.

Now onto my other news, that I've been keeping a secret for awhile, I'm a coach for the Library of Memories class that Stacy Julian teaches at Big Picture Scrapbooking. (LOM and BPS for short, remember those I'll be referring to them often). I was surprised and honoured when I got an email from Stacy asking me if I would consider being a coach this year. Ummm, let me think about that....YES!! Check out Stacy's post

I took LOM for the first time in 2008 and it changed the way I scrapbook forever. No more chronological chains weighing me down. Making cool connections. Mixing photos from different years on one page. No stress to stay caught up. No stress to scrap every. single. photo. I've ever taken. I'm excited to join in helping others take their LOM journey. More to come on all this.

I'm also doing (for the 3rd time since last February) LayOut A Day (LOAD) challenge put on by Lain Ehmann. You have to do one layout each day for the month and post them to a Flickr gallery each day to be entered to win some prizes. I don't even care about the prizes, the challenge is really scrapbook life changing. You really discover alot about your style, what supplies you really use and how well they are stored. This challenge is really possible when you have a LOM system set up. It's so easy to find pictures to scrap each day.

Be patient with me I'm learning this blogging thing, making links, adding blinkies etc. For example, I can't get a double space between my LOM and LOAD paragraph. Grrr. :)

My first blog post

Hello there blog land! I resisted starting a blog for a while. Just thought it would be one more reason to be on the computer and not doing my work. But I have taken the plunge.

This blog will be used to talk about my main hobbies: photography & scrapbooking. My passion for travelling. My everyday life here in small village Alberta. My 2 daughters, husband, 2 cats that live here. Maybe my complaints about working from home for the oilfield company we own. Definitely some (alot) of complaining about the winter weather, but for a few short months in the summer I will be very happy to see the green grass and leaves.

I have always loved photography. I started scrapbookingn in 2001, was a strictly chronological scrapper. Then in 2007 I discovered the wonderful online community at Big Picture Scrapbooking, while taking Stacy Julian's Library of Memories (LOM) class. I just love my new system. I live less than 60 minutes from the city, where there is a Michael's and a few local scrapbook stores and Costco for getting my pictures printed.

I was born and raised in the area I'm still living in. My mom and dad live 20 minutes away from us on their farm. My sister, husband, 2 daughters live 5 minutes away in the next small town. My Baba & Grandpa live in the same town. My mother, father, sister, brother in law all live in the same town as us. I love having our family so close, which is the only reason we live here and not somewhere with less winter. In laws to babysit after school. My mom takes the girls quite often for sleepovers. We go there every Saturday.

Anyway, just a short introduction for now. Over time you'll learn all about me...whether you want to or not. I guess if you don't want you don't have to read, but please do. Feel free to leave comments or questions.