Sketchy Thursdays & "Cupcakes"

This is Sketchy Thursdays sketch of the week. Love it! A double page sketch!

For my layout, I used some darling pictures of my younger 2 children decorating cupcakes at Valentines. Unfortunately, my oldest son was in the hospital recovering from surgery so he couldn't take part, but his sister and brother made sure they created a few mini-masterpieces for him too!

I used some really old product on this one. I dug through my folder of Valentine's theme product and managed to use up a lot of random paper mixing various reds and pinks.

Thanks for stopping by!

A & C - "True Friends"

I made this layout at a Vicki Boutin layout class and I finally had some pics to go with it.





All products by Doodlebug.

Sketchy Thursdays & a Brain Tumor Story

Here is Sketchy Thursdays sketch of the week:



And my Layout:



Here is the journalling:


Yes. We recently went through what no parent EVER wants to go through. To make a long story short (and to keep my from getting weepy AGAIN!)the story goes like this:
During a regular yearly check of Bryn's eyes, the Optometrist saw that his optic nerves were swollen, so he sent us to an Opthalmologist to check these nerves in better detail. He told us that swelling of this kind in the optic nerves is usually caused by swelling of the brain. He sent us for an emergency MRI. Bryn had an MRI at 5pm and by 6:30 we were told he had a fist-sized tumour growing within his skull, crushing his brain and cerebellum. He would need surgery immediately and by 9pm he was in the OR for a 6 hour surgery. Amazingly, everything went perfectly and Bryn has recovered VERY well! His tumor is a benign cystic tumor called a Pilocytic Astrocytoma and it happens in 1 in 100 000 people. Bryn will be under watch for years to come, but we are so glad to have him with us, happy and healthy, even after that ordeal!!



Want to see what this kind of tumor looks like? Here is an example from another child (Bryn's was larger!):



Thanks for reading!

LRW - Glimmer Mist!

I did it!

I finally bought myself some bottles of mist. With the aid of my 6 year old I chose Silver and French Blue Glimmer Mists. I chose these 2 colours so that I could add some sparkle to the snow-themed pages I have been doing lately.

Here is the latest:



I did a lot of of machine sewing on this one and I hand-sewed a lot of buttons on.

But the best part was using the Glimmer Mists to add a little "wintery sparkle" to go with the title. (Man! It is hard to photograph mist. I hope I captured it here!)

Here is another couple of close-ups:

Thanks for looking!

LRW and Inspirational Card Sketches

Just a quick post today.

I had lost my scrappin' mojo over the last few weeks. The kids had ALL been sick everyday - infections, flu, toothaches - on and on. Now that we are all on the mend, I finally sat down to scrap. I am glad to have the excitement of paper crafting all come flowing back!

This is the Inspirational Card Sketch for this week (#100):



And at Little Red Wagon, the girls challenged us to use Kraft product on our creations.

This is what I came up with:



The mugs of "latte" are rub-ons from American Crafts for eons ago. I am glad I finally used them up!!

November and a Birthday Party

I am TRYING to put something new on here twice a week or so. I know some family members have this blog as their home page and they need something new to look every so often.

So here I am, posting something new.

I vowed back in January 2010 that I would do Project 12 along with Scrapbook and Cards Magazine each and every month. I used the prescribed sketch ALMOST every month, but in November I had too many pics for the November sketch. So, I chose a different Becky Fleck sketch and put this together over the Christmas holidays.:


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(KI Memories and Echo Park Paper)

My two boys have birthdays just over 2 weeks apart. They were both due to be born on December 9th (weird, eh?) but Bryn came 10 days early and Camden had to be forced out 5 days after his duedate.

Instead of trying to organize and invite everyone to 2 birthday parties, I had one big one in honour of both boys. I think I will try to do this every year, as long as they let me.



(Imaginisce)

I managed to cram A LOT of pics into this layout. I think I included every guest in at least photo!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sketchy Thursdays and A Family Photo Shoot

Recently an old friend from high school spent an afternoon with my extended family in order to shoot some amazing pics of all of us together. The photos included me, my hubby, our 3 kids, my 2 sisters and my parents.

As with so many families, my father's recent health diagnosis has brought us together more often. We cherish our time as a group and we all come home to Exeter far more often.



My mother, sisters and I are all keen on making as many memories as we can during 2011. My father LOVES it when we are all home and seems almost giddy when we are around.

To capture some of this happiness that occurs between "specialist appointments" and "bad-news phone calls" we all posed happily in a beautiful park, one cold day in November.

There couldn't be better evidence of a family holding together through thick and thin. These pictures speak, as the old saying goes, a million words.

This is one of my favourites:



And the journalling reads:




Amen to that.

(Love you forever, Daddy!)