sharing

some of the layouts that i created last weekend. These ones all have a "school" theme to them.

Title: your freckles
* your typical "jill-layered-LO" with a few little twists. I actually cropped my photo and pattern paper with my scissors; no paper trimmer involved. I saw a very similar lo on a blog I was reading and fell in love with the more non-traditional way of cropping a photo. love this. Can;t take the credit here for this brain-wave. the circles in the corners are stamped with black ink & hot pink paint. The mini dots are an actual Stampin' Up stamp that I borrowed at the crop from a friend. i WILL be purchasing them soon though. :)

Title: Looking Forward to Gr. 3
* a very simply-designed LO. I love the background paper -- so typical to Carter at this age. and the dictionary paper (that i actually ripped out of our dictionary at home; the "pn" section of the book, i think) shows Carter's keen sense & character in school.

Title: 3 waiting

* This LO is actually scrap-lifted from a magazine that i loved and ripped the page out one day. no idea which issue though. love the strips of pp & dictionary paper; love the painted background; love the floral in the corner (i think that is my design :) ; love the vintage little dick & jane card in the corner under the flower; love the photo of my 3 kids waiting for the bus on their first day of school. love these memories.

Title: shine

* this LO is totally inspired by the homemade felt hearts that i cut and sewed onto the lo. I also hand-doodled all the flowers on the page -- these are doodled onto watercolour paper with a black Sharpie marker and then coloured using "Smooch". This lo is actually really dimensional and this photo doesn't really show that. :( Maybe i'll post some close-ups one day.Title: K

* another product of "jill-layering" and tryng to include all the embellishments i've had forever in my stash. I actually don't have THAT many school-themed embellies; i tend to purchase generic embellishments that i can use on multiple-themed lo's. It's fun to get the creative juices flowing with something that isn't typical sometimes.

beware: you are going to see a common layout theme in the pages that I will be showing you. I had never really noticed before, but my sister-in-law pointed out to me on the weekend that I tend to always (maybe more like "usually") place my photos on the right-hand-side of my layout and design around them. She, on the other hand, "usually" (more like "always") places her photos on the lhs of her layout. Strange, eh? Is this b/c i am right-handed and she is left? I have no idea. I do know though, that looking through my albums, i DO tend to draw ones eye to the right side of my lo's for some odd reason.

just a little something to ponder.

thinking & questioning {from the farm},
j.

we have a WINNER!!!!

Okay....so there were sooooo many of you that read my blog and posted a guess & comment. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!!!!
You girls had some really great guesses (except for Allison, who should know me better than to guess "9") -- just kidding, Al. love ya'!!!!
It's true -- sometimes it takes us so long to wind ourselves down on these "weekends away" that we actually don't accomplish that much. But....who said that successful scrapbooking is counted in numbers of layouts? Not me :) I'm just happy to get away with some friends; laugh, eat, sleep, dance (yeah....we do some dancin' in the late hours), and just have a hoot with some great friends.
So......the winner is......

JL Hildebrand said...
Sounds like a great time! Now if I know you, there was some fun times - but there was also some serious scrap-time. So, I am going to guess that you got 19 layouts done. My first instinct was over 20, but I think you will have enough product to get a "few" more done during the week. - Lisa

Congratulations, Lisa. I will get you a goodie bag of some favourite products in the next few days. Or......you could come pick some out as you only live a few miles from my house {lol}. Too funny!!!

Now, the actually total of single-page LOs that I brought home finished FROM VALLEYVIEW was...........24.

I will show you ALL OF THEM in next few days.
Here's one for now:

And here's the whole group of scrapbookers at Valleyview. Love these girls!!!!! (I'm standing on the RHS of the photo -- third one in).

thanks for playing {from the farm},
j.

celebrating

I think it would only be suitable to congratulate myself on reaching the 50 post mark on this blog. I do not say this because I am vain. I say this because I was once a very skeptical blog-reader. When I was told that I should start my own blog, I was the first to laugh and say "who on earth would read what I have to say?"

Well......who knows who's actually reading all this. But I am having a lot of fun posting for you; bringing you a little piece of my scrapbooking life, snippets of my family, new layouts, the occassional technique (have to get better at that one) and lots of fun photos.
So, to mark my 50th Post I want to have my very first contest -- online.

Here's the deal.

This past weekend I spent 3 days at a fabulous camp (Valleyview) scrappin' with some of my friends. Friends that I only get to see this particular weekend. I had gone scrap-shopping a few weeks prior (paper, embellies, ribbon, etc.) and everything that I purchased, I kept in the shopping bags to only use during this weekend. Wow!!!! Was that every hard!!!! I was sooooo excited to get to work with my new stuff. I had an awesome time visiting with my sister-in-laws (they both sat at the same table as me all weekend -- that's the best part of the weekend), eating food I didn't have to prepare or clean up, going to bed whenever I wanted, getting up whenever I wanted, eating a whole bag of chocolate Mini Eggs already on the first night (they were supposed to last all weekend -- ooops.) and scrappin' lots of fun layouts.

So.......here's the 50th Post question of the week:

Can you guess how many single-page layouts I created this weekend?

All I need is a number. Here's a hint: I don't go for quantity. I go for sleep.

So, post your guess in the comments and I will, of course, pick the closest guess next week. The lucky person will be sent a fabulous package of some of my favourite products. Tell your friends; they can play too. Then I will post some of my fave layouts from the weekend.

Here's a sneak peek at some to leave you hangin'.


smiles & counting {from the farm},
j.

told the kids

... about our next family adventure.
We will be leaving after Christmas for the beautiful country of Costa Rica. Ron & I have never been there -- although we have travelled to several other countries. Thought we'd experience this little adventure with the kids this time. yeah!!!!We will be flying into Liberia and renting a car; travelling then into Tamarindo, where we will stay at a hotel for 1 night -- the restaurant is called "The Monkey Bar" or something like that and boasts its name from having monkeys grace the eating area in the restaurant. Don't know what to think of that, but hey.....it's an adventure, right?!?
We will then be driving to Playa Grande and renting this beautiful home for 5 nights (see below). It has 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, its own pool, outside grill & a seperate pool house. WAY too much for our family of 5, but no one else wanted to join us :( The house is only 5 minutes walking distance to the Playa Grande beach -- a world-famous beach for its surfing (i know what you are all thinking) and its nesting ground for the Leatherback Turtles; the world's largest turtles. We are seriously hoping to see some right on the beach.

After a 5 night stay in Playa Grande, we will drive to Playa Langosta (very close to Tamarindo), where we will rent this condo for the next 4 nights (see photo below). It's RIGHT ON THE BEACH!!!!!! I'm excited about this place because it's within walking distance of everything.......the grocery store, the restaurants, the bakery, the lounges for us & arcades for the kids, etc. The pool is just a stones-throw from our apartment andd apparently I can see the kids swimming right from the kitchen. Our condo is the one that you see closest to that big tree on the beach -- 1st and 2nd floor. Awesome snorkelling is just around this little corner on the beach, as the waves right infront of the condo look pretty BIG.

Can't wait to experience this with the kids this time. Makes me smile.

So........lots of excitement here at the Hildebrand-Ranch!!!!! Now we just have to decide whether to get Christmas gifts for the kids?!? Maybe snorkel-gear would be suitable this year.

thinking {from the farm},

j.

this year

...was a beautiful evening for trick or treating.

...Asha dressed up as a "sleepy girl" for trick or treating (curlers and all). Great for putting her to bed later -- she was already in her pj's.

...Carter was a Ninja.
...Asha changed her costume to a "Princess Witch" for the school party.

what a great year!!!

:) {from the farm},

j.

the results are in ...

Today I went to the school to see the halloween parade in the gym. Asha was totally cute in her little "princess witch" costume and Carter was a blue "ninja".
They announced the winners of the Pumpkin Decorating contest: Carter received a prize for 3rd place; and Asha got a 2nd place prize. Yeah!!!!! They were really excited & so were their mom & dad. I never did see the winning pumpkin -- apparently it was a little porcupine & her baby(ies) created by a fellow Kindergarten child??? Wish I could have seen it.
Anyway....that's all I have for today. Tomorrow we veg until the evening events of treating (no tricking). Did I ever mention the story about the Halloween night when one of our sheep got spray-painted green. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in the barn that night. A few neighbours decided to play a little trick on us; stack some bales on the lane, move some machinery, spray-paint a sheep. All in a night's work {lol}.
Ron mentioned we might tackle our kitchen backsplash tomorrow -- yikes!!!! Now, that's alittle over-the-top for a Saturday, don'tcha think?!? Better rest up.
later {from the farm},
j.

any guesses...

...as to how many little packages of blue jello will fill a large pumpkin? Only I would ask such a question {lol}.
Well, we found out. We made 6 packs and didn't even come close to filling Asha's pumpkin to the top. So, we sawed off the top and created fabulous "Pumpkin Beach". Some cardboard sand, a few shells, a plastic turtle & a starfish in the jello, felt little towels & some Polly Pockets in bikinis -- you got yourself an entry for the Annual Pumpkin Decorating Contest at school.

We had so much fun!!!

happy carving to you {from the farm},

j.