After the Storm

The storm was over ... and I put on my boots, coat, scarf and gloves ... I had to head out to clear the driveway and walkway so that Steve could pull in when he got home from work.  Resigned, I trudged out into the night ... and found that someone had used their snowblower to clear our driveway!  I don't know why I was so surprised, Steve always helps to dig out our neighbours ... but I stood there ... stunned!  All I had to do was clear the walk to our door!  In a better mood, I stood and gazed at the stars, bright in the cold night sky.  Life is good!

Since I was all bundled-up, I marched through the house right out the back door and played in the snow with the pups until Steve came home.  He was thrilled to find the driveway clear!

The next morning dawned clear and cold!  We opened the door and released the hounds ... and soon, little Bailey joined us.  Sooooooo, more pictures of the pups ...

Little Bailey  Hurray ... friends to play with

Bailey has a thing for Tuck ... she's like a tick ... she grabs hold, and won't let go ... Tucker's such a nice boy ... he's OK with it.

Bailey and Tuck

Alfie

The three amigos  Alfie likes to jump garden fences!

CRASH   Poor Tuck!

Tucker and Alfie race for a Toy ... and yes, Alfie already has one

While the pups played in the snow, we discovered that Bailey's dad, Joe did our driveway.  Such nice people, we're so glad that we can call them friends!

a Long Weekend ...

So, while the storm raged ... I sat up at my desk ... plows rummbled past ... and cars got stuck on the side street, and I scrapped 2 layouts.

Last week I printed a picture onto textured cardstock, and I really like the effect ... so I did it again.  This time, I picked one of my favorite pictures from our 2008 vacation ... Castle Mountain.  It had to be big, so I printed it 11.5" x 14", and it looks just like it was painted on canvas.  I really like the way this layout looks.

breathtaking Castle Mountain

Canvas Texture

and again, from 2008.  We were camping in Waterton Lakes National Park.  We could hear Cameron Falls from our campsite, so we walked over to check it out.  I'm a sucker for waterfalls!  A short trail climbs through the forest and up to the top of the falls, so I headed up, leaving Steve with Ruff and Gem ... it was just too steep for her ... almost too steep for me!  The view of the Lake was stunning, it sparkled like a green gem.  Wilflowers thrived in the spray from the falls!  I stood and watched as the river swept past me, leaping over the falls ... but the most awesome thing ... I was standing on rock as old as time ... 600 million years old!

Cameron Falls

Detail  Love the poofie white cloud

Not bad at all ... let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Snow Day

I didn't go to work ... SNOW DAY!  That's right ... it snowed and snowed ... and then, it kept right on snowing.  I took the pups out in the yard and took some pictures of them during the storm.

They were feeling FRISKY!

you want a piece of me!

catch me if you can ...

Na Na Na

BAM didn't see that coming SUCKAH

so, wanna try again

Awww, come on, she started it

The whole time that Syd and Alf were romping, Tucker ran around barking ... and barking ... until I grabbed the deflated, ripped, nasty basket ball ...

Give it back, give it back, give it back

I mean, look at those eyes!

And then, when I tossed it, Alfie got it first, poor Tuck!




HA   I have the toy ... as usual

  and finally, well it's just too funny!

WHITE OUT

And then, it snowed some more.  I took the pups inside.  It was my turn to play at the scrapbooking table!

Great Scrapbook Weekend!

It didn't start out that way, but it sure ended up that way .... I never take anything for granted.

On Jan 28th, a friend from Newfoundland that I have not seen for 6 years reported to work for a 2 month assignment with me!  We were on shift together, we we started talking about the natural beauty on the Rock.  So, I wanted to scrap a page from my 2005 Newfoundland vacation ... that I still have not finished!

Truth be told, I have a tough time scrapping my best pictures of the greatest places ... because I want them to be spectacular, and nothing is ever good enough ... but when I do scrap them, my passion and love for those places really shine through!  But I also have a tough time with my awful pictures of the greatest places, because whatever I do, it just won't cut it.  Well, happily I was able to turn some really crappy pictures into a layout I really like!

We were visiting Bay Bull's, taking a puffin and whale watching boat out to the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve.  Come on, you just have to give it up to whoever named some of the places in Newfoundland!  Anyway, the little boat pitched and rolled ... and even though we were viewing stunning seascapes, puffins and bald eagles ... the pictures SUCK!

I found a sketch from the 6X6 Paper Sketch Class by Alison Davis that I downloaded last year ... using just small pictures ... I substituted a 12X6 picture of a puffin in flight (which I printed onto cardstock) for the 2 6X6 papers in the sketch.  I like how the textured cardstock made the picture look like a canvas painting.  I'm so happy with this layout!

Witless Bay

Puffin Detail

So, way back, I was working on a layout for Sketch Support using 2 page sketch 28 ... and I lost the pictures!  I hate that ... I had the paper and the embellishments ready to go ... but the pictures just disappeared.  Yesterday I was looking through my "idea" bin for my tickets for the puffin boat tour (which I kept!), and what should I find ... THOSE pictures ... never did find my ticket though. 

I pounced on the pictures and finished the layout.  These are pictures from 2006 ... my nephew Chris, just 5 years old, and a total Natural on skates!  Even then he was being scouted for triple A teams.

he's a Natural

Star Detail

OK, another long story.  During the summer of 2011 my nephew James was into spray-paint art.  I was so impressed with his work, he gave me the piece he was working on.  I brought it home and put it into a "safe place" ... and then totally forgot where that place was!  Well, it turned up ... and I decided to scrap it and put it into an album ... that should be safe enough!  The problem was ... he just painted on any old thing ,,, in this case a chunk on cardboard ... the thing wasn't even close to square ... so I evened up the sides and decided to matte it.  I used a 1 page sketch from the Winter Bundle by Allison Davis for the left page.

U R outta this world

I made little planets from cardboard circles and stitched "orbits" to guide them.  I used a gel pen to carry the "stars" from his painting to my layout and then I used a border stamp of stars to tie it all together.

And finally ... my friend from work had her second child ... a boy, a big boy (10lbs, 11 oz).  I wanted to continue with the theme that I used for her first child.  I made a 1 page layout, and included the baby's card (signed by all her friends) as an embellishment on the layout.  So I made the baby card this weekend.  I needed to go back to my tutorial for accordian hearts ... I really love the finished card.  I sewed in 4 little heart shaped pages for everyone to sign ... adorable!  I know she'll love it!

extra pages

PLUS I see that Sketch Support is back!  Yep, Allison has had to move the sketch support site because some leech is trying to extort $8,000 from her ... but it's all at  sketchsupport.blogspot.com now so go check it out, it's all there to inspire us!

Thanks for looking!