Note to Self

Last night I stayed up late. Way too late for a school night. The old me might have been up EASY-PEASY until the wee hours of the morning (back when Mason was in afternoon Kindergarten). In fact, from the time he was born, until he was in Grade One, it was a fairly regular occurrence for me to stumble up to bed between 2 – 3 am. I was indeed blessed with children that sleep in. That and creativity that always seems to step it up a notch if it’s past 11 pm.

But the new me, has come to her senses, and tries to make it to bed by 11 pm. I just don’t wake up very nice. No matter how hard I try, I can’t be jolly. I’m NOT a morning person. Enough said.
So last night, I stayed up way too late for a school night, because I got on a role. Remember a few months ago, I was on about ‘de-cluttering’? Last night I began to de-clutter my scrapbook room. And it REALLY needs to be done. I’m a dreadful hoarder… (I thought admitting that would make me feel better) Let me try this:

“My name is Candy, and I’m a dreadful hoarder…”

Nope. Still feel the same.

Once in awhile, I get into the ruthless ‘everything goes’ mode. I happened to be in that state last night. I lugged armfuls of old magazines such as: Parents, Ikea, Pottery Barn to the recycling bin. I’m talking circa 2006 and BEFORE…) I started a great big ‘donation bag’ and in it I tossed paper that I don’t like the look of any more. Markers and stickers I honestly know I'll never use. Cheap little albums I HAD TO HAVE, because when something is a good deal, I can justify anything. Crazy dollar store stuff I thought I needed to have, but in real life, don’t. It’s been nearly 24 hours and I haven’t rooted through the donation bag to retrieve anything. Yay for me.

Having said that, especially about the magazines, there’s absolutely NO DOUBT in my mind that a week from now, I’ll need to find something I’d purposefully dog-eared, in one of those magazines. But alas, it will be too late; they’ll be fulfilling their destiny at the recycle plant.

I guess, the point of my story is… And I actually had to think to myself, “Is there a point to your story?” And indeed, there is.

My scrap room (which I’m thinking of calling my ‘studio’ from now on) is currently in disarray, and I’m NO LONGER in my ruthless, everything must go phase.

It’s only 10 pm, and I’m tired and the very last thing I feel like doing is sorting and putting things away, you know, all the ‘stuff’ that got put aside last night at 1 am. The 'to be dealt with 'tomorrow' stuff.

Having said that, if I look at the bookshelf I was ruthless with, it does make me smile. So, I think I’ll got to bed now, get my 8 hours, and then work on it another time. So I guess this is just kind of a reminder to self, don't start some of these projects so late. Think the timing through a bit!

Capturing Moments

I signed up for another on-line class with Big Picture Scrapbooks.

As of now, I've done 12 classes/workshops. There were even a few freebies in there! What I like about taking an on-line class is that it forces me to ‘keep up’. There are usually a ‘suggested’ number of layouts to do, per week. I say ‘suggested’ because it’s not supposed to in any way, bring on guilt of any kind. It is stressed, that you can do everything at your own pace, choosing to do ONLY what you want to do, or doing nothing at all, if that’s what you want to do. In my case, I WANT to keep up. I like to post things into the gallery of the class I’m taking, and I LOVE the feedback I get from the other scrapbookers and occasionally by the teachers.

The class I’m currently taking is called Yesterday & Today, taught by Ali Edwards, whom I love. You can read her blog here. So far each class I’ve done has started its ‘new week’ on a Thursday. So each Thursday morning, I head downstairs with my piping hot coffee to receive my email, watch my video tutorial, and basically figure out what needs to be done for the next week.

I have to laugh at myself, because I get kind of ‘dog with a bone-ish’ when I’m taking a class. I want to watch my tutorial, work on my computer and basically not be interrupted for a few hours. (Which is hard, considering I’m here with Madelyn each day) and my job title is stay at home mom and NOT graphic designer…

Anyhoo, this class is about looking back at yesterday, and looking ahead to today. It’s about capturing the stories that I think others will want to know, if God forbid, I weren’t around to tell them to anyone. It plays on my guilt slightly, that perhaps I’m just not keeping good enough track of my life as a Mum. Perhaps I just strode through my younger years, taking everything for granted, and not detailing what was important…

I’ve created 2 layouts so far, one was simply to let me off the hook, for any guilt I might harbor over not doing enough/documenting enough/being good enough, etc. (I’m pretty sure I’ll need to come back to this one time and time again, constantly re-reading it to myself and convincing myself things are ok).


The next layout I did was for the title page of the album I’m creating. It’s using pictures that I’ve scanned in. And I have to tell you, I’m amazed at the quality. It makes me think I should be scanning in every picture I ever took BEFORE digital came along. And I’ve only been using digital since Madelyn came along. Crikey, that's A LOT of scanning...
I’m looking forward to completing this week’s assignment, which is documenting 6 random childhood memories. I went through some pictures, and as I did, I was amazed at how memories came flooding back. I looked through pictures of my childhood, not all of them, but a pretty good selection of them and it’s shocking the memories that begin to flood. Things you can suddenly remember JUST by studying a picture. Will it really matter if my kids don’t know how much their Uncle Chris and I fought as kids? Or that one year we went as Hobo’s for Halloween? Or that I was younger than Mason is now, when we got our first puppy (seriously Mum… were you THAT brave OR just plain crazy). I don’t know if it will matter to them or not. But it is a part of my life, and it matters to me. And if I’m not around to tell them, then I guess they just won’t get told.

I think it’s quite safe to say, that I’m coming around, ever so slightly to Ali’s way of thinking.

And look at that, almost an entire post without complaining about the weather. But I HAVE to. It's like a winter wonderland outside right now. And it's been cold. So very cold. And I'm not looking forward to another 6 L O N G months of it. Because the chinook might blow in like it's supposed to, and we might reach the 'supposed' high of 21° by Saturday, but WHO CARES, winter is a com'in.

Liked it Better in the 'Past' than in the Present

I've been telling a few people lately, about my trip and NYC experience. And while I was there, in NY, I spent a lot of time kind of thinking 'sheesh...' For example:

sheesh, there ARE a lot of people,
sheesh, cars sure honk a lot,
sheesh, is there 40 people in a line up for EVERYTHING?
sheesh, THAT was expensive,
sheesh, there ARE taxi's everywhere,
sheesh, he almost got hit by that car [while jaywalking of course]
sheesh, people REALLY DO walk shoulder to shoulder,
sheesh, this city NEVER stops moving... [to name just a few]

By the way, don't run off to the thesaurus to look up the word 'sheesh'. It's really kind of my own word and I typically kind of cringe as it's being said...

But now that I've been home for nearly 2 wks, and I've been showing my pictures to people, suddenly I have this passion for New York. All of a sudden I'm animated and telling people what I did infact love about it. And I have to tell you, that it makes me really glad that I did end up buying a couple of I [heart] NY tee's from some street vendors...

I've seen commercials, and shows on tv, and I think that's NYC! Hey! I've been there! And I'm excited about it. Because while I was there, I kind of had the 'been HERE, done that' feeling... I've kind of confused with myself, because now my frame of mind is a bit different, it's this:

Maybe I would go back. Now I feel like I'd have my wits about me a little bit. It took me 4 good days, to finally figure out street addresses, and to be honest, I still don't really understand how they find people. But it was a great experience, and I got to do it with a great bunch of girls, my dear Mum included. And Yes Barry, if I went with you, I would go to ONE museum. The Museum of Natural History, at the recommendation of Randene of course.

Day One - me and Mum, on the double decker bus tour. Talk about overwhelming...

Our first 'hop-off' and 9 of us walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. We had lunch and walked back.

Ahhhhh, the Green Lady. She was one of the highlights of my trip. Awesome to see 'live'.

Carrie, Mum & I, we found the Magnolia Bakery. Yum-O.

Yes, that is me, with the yellow M&M dude. In what other than M&M World in Time's Square. Crikey...

I just felt like I needed to put that out there. Now that I'm home I'm really glad I got the chance to go!

A Girl,a Marker and a Moment Alone...

I had to post this... Because it's hilarious. I would have thought that leaving a 4 and a 1/2 year old, alone at the kitchen table for a few moments, with her markers and coloring books, would have been fine. While I stepped into the laundry room to fold clothes, and change machines, I came back to this...

Her first response when I came back into the kitchen and stopped dead in my tracks was:

"Are you mad at me?"

To which, I replied "No" (trying to stifle my laugh... it helped KNOWING that the markers she was using are Crayola washables)
And she told me, "I'm glad you're not mad, I thought this would make me look prettier".

I grabbed my camera, and took a few pictures, before we headed to the bathroom, and scrubbed the marker off her face.

But that first picture of her... What is that in her eyes? A sparkle? A gleam? I believe she's part imp... [Note to self - remove all PERMANENT MARKERS FROM WITHIN REACH...]

Last Few Weeks...

The last few weeks have been crazy. First, I planned, executed and pulled off a surprise 40th birthday 'get together' for Barry. It was kind of a last minute plan, since our Las Vegas/Phoenix trip kind of fell through. And to be honest, I wasn’t sure that it was a surprise at all. I thought he knew something was up, so it felt like we were politely avoiding the topic for a couple of weeks. As it turned out, he was indeed surprised, and everyone showed up. A good time was had by all. I reserved some tables (and by some, I mean for 30 people) and we kind of took over an entire area of the pub. As other people left, we kept absorbing more tables. It was nice to have it out of the house. After the night was over, we simply went home. Nothing to clean up! And not a bunch of left over food to eat!

As I was in NYC for his ACTUAL birthday I really wanted to do something before I left. We’re so darn lucky to have the people in our lives that we do. This was his birthday cake, the picture is the same one I used for invitations. STILL loving photoshop!

And of course, NYC. Wow… What can I say? We went, we saw, we conquered, we walked, we got honked at, we ate, we shopped, we drank coffee, we saw, we did all the sight seeing, we took tons of pictures. We fit more into a week, that one could imagine. What a fantastic trip, with these fantastic ladies.

Not a great shot of the tee's, but let me assure you, they were SUPER cute. Funny, I didn't take a close up picture of the shirts. We all showed up at the airport, dutifully wearing them. What a bunch of sports. To have our photo taken and all... Can't start a trip without a photo shoot.

We all got along very well. When we arrived in New York, all 13 of us walked down to Times Square [wow...] and meandered in and out of stores. I have no idea what time stuff actually closed, because at 11 pm, there were hoards of people in and out of stores. The next morning, all of us went on our first bus tour, to get ourselves acquainted with New York [yeah right...] I think at one point 9 of us got off, 4 carried on, and we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. The only other time the 13 of us were together again, was when we saw Billy Elliot, [which was awesome] and for our one dinner, which we'd made reservations for a month in advance, at Spice Market [highly recommend] and all had to split up into smaller groups.

We had so much fun. And we got so much packed into our short time there, that it seemed unreal. And now I'm home, and having a hard time getting off the couch. Hard to believe that for a week, we probably walked between 5-8 hours a day or more, and now I'm hanging out at home like a sloth. I need to get more active! It feels great to be more active! I'm eager to get into my scrapbook room, and do some birthday and New York layouts. I'm really looking forward to getting some pages/albums done.

And now we're into October. The kids begged me to bring out the Halloween stuff today, so today we 'spooked' up the house some. It's fun when they want to get involved in helping. That only lasts so long though, then they grow tiresome and I'm the only one doing it. We LOVE Halloween around here, so we're on the countdown. Madelyn has her costume already. She's going to be a chicken....[No WAY we could change her mind on that one] Mason is still a bit unsure of what he'd like to be yet, though when Indiana Jones was suggested, he seemed somewhat interested.

There was a bit of snow here today, which isn't too much fun. So it's a bit cold, and it's getting dark so darn early now. It's depressing. I have a really hard time with fall. I wish I could embrace it a bit more. If I could hibernate, I'd be ALL OVER embracing it, I know!

Guest Blogger

My Mum wanted to know if she could be a 'guest' on my blog. You bet! I told her. So she whipped up a little something. I've got it, and a few pictures to add. So, without further adieu, here's Ama...

High River Heaven...

Beautiful, warm Fall days are such a treasure, especially when you have the wonderful gift of grandchildren to enjoy the days with you. Annually, in September, we drive to High River in the motor home for a weekend get-away with our special Mason and Madelyn.

Days spent playing at the park, tossing rocks in the river, collecting "perfect" rocks for painting, going on adventurous hikes through uncharted paths (led by Indiana Moe and his faithful sidekick, Miss Maddy Moe), marshmallow smore treats (oh, so sticky), our Saturday afternoon walk to Evelyn's ice cream shop for a tasty cotton candy ice cream cone, little feet scurrying from their bed in the cool morning to snuggle with Ama and Baba, are all necessary to make our weekend complete.

Such special times, special memories for us and, we hope, fond memories for Macy and Maddy as well.

NYC Eve

I'm disappointed I didn't get all the 'blogs' done this week, that I'd hoped to accomplish. My guest blogger is raring to go, but I haven't got pics yet to go along with it!
And tomorrow I'm heading to NYC!
Whoop-whoop!
So, it will have to wait until my return!